Soybeans: A Triangle, A Thrust, A Fall Oh Boy!

The other day, I was sailing down the highway at a steady, 65 miles-per-hour, windows-down, hair-flying-everywhere pace when -- BAM! -- suddenly, all four lanes of traffic slowed down to a near standstill and I slammed on my brakes.

The cause of the hold up: toll booth dead ahead.

30 minutes and three feet forward later, the traffic begins to divide: On one side (the side I'm on) cars fuse into a bumper-to-bumper bottleneck and remain that way for the next hour. On the other side, the E-Z pass side, cars put the pedal to the metal and zip right through the toll on their rapid, merry way.

Needless to say, I had plenty of time to think. And it occurred to me that in the world of financial analysis, there are also two ways to "travel": The mainstream "lane" where "drivers" often wait in gridlock until some news event "pays" a visit to a particular market, and the Elliott wave analysis "lane", where trend-changing alerts keep the "E-Z Pass" to potential opportunities wide open.

Take, for instance, the Soybeans market. According to one major November 30 news source, the near-term direction of soybean prices is at the mercy of Mother Nature: "Adverse weather in South America may curb production," begins the article. "Price dips may occur as long as conditions jeopardize crops."

Over in the "fast lane" of Elliott Wave International's latest Monthly Futures Junctures, however, there is no waiting for good weather. Here, Futures Junctures Service editor and Elliott wave expert Jeffrey Kennedy uncovers a particular wave pattern in soybeans, a Contracting Triangle, which tells you right now where soybeans are most likely to go next.

Here's this pattern's brief definition: A contracting triangle is horizontal price move consisting of five overlapping waves labeled A-B-C-D-E. Triangles always precede the final move within a wave sequence. Once the triangle is complete, you can expect the final "thrust" -- and then a trend reversal.

Here's a real-world example from soybeans' recent past, as illustrated in the latest Monthly Futures Junctures chart (some Elliott wave labels have been removed for this article):

Since Futures Junctures Service editor Jeffrey Kennedy had identified the triangle pattern, soybean prices followed the Elliott wave script well: The post-triangle thrust was followed by a swift reversal to three-week lows. As for how this action fits into the larger picture -- well, in the latest Monthly Futures Junctures, Jeffrey Kennedy shows you an in-depth, five-page exclusive "Featured Market" segment on soybeans with the aim of answering this very question:

"Is the November high a top that will remain intact for a number of months... OR, can we can expect prices to trade above the November extreme?"

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