Correction depth and duration: price, bars and clock time
Measure the same invented pullback in four ways without confusing the units or declaring the pattern complete.
Published: (UTC+3)
The length of a correction is an ambiguous phrase. State whether you mean an absolute price difference, the fraction of the preceding move returned, a count of completed bars or elapsed clock time. These measurements answer different questions. None, by itself, identifies an Elliott structure or proves that the selected correction has finished.
Define the observation window and calendar
Both fictional cases follow a rise from 100 to 160 and examine a pullback from 160 to 136. The end of each selected window is a measurement boundary, not evidence of pattern completion. Use invented one-hour bars and a teaching calendar with sessions 09:00–14:00 UTC on 5, 6, 7 and 8 January 2026: five completed bars per session. This is an assumed calendar, not the trading schedule of a real exchange. A ends after the first session; B ends after the fourth.
Read four different measurements
| Case or measure | Prices or formula | Clock interval or value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 160 → 136 | 2026-01-05 09:00–14:00 UTC | Five completed one-hour bars;5 elapsed hours. Price depth is 24 units and the retracement of the preceding rise is 40%. |
| B | 160 → 136 | 2026-01-05 09:00 → 2026-01-08 14:00 UTC | Twenty completed one-hour bars over four sessions:20 represented hours, but 77 elapsed clock hours because the three inter-session gaps total 57 hours. |
| R | (160 − 136) / (160 − 100) | 40% | The denominator is the preceding move's 60 units. Returning 24 of those units gives 40%. |
| P | (136 / 160 − 1) × 100 | −15% | The denominator is the pullback's starting price 160. The price change is−15%, a different quantity from a 40% retracement. |
Calculate the denominators explicitly
Write the starting and ending prices before using a percentage. Absolute depth is 160−136=24. The preceding move is 160−100=60, so the returned fraction is 24/60=0.40. The price return from 160 to 136 is instead 136/160−1=−0.15. Keep the chosen bar interval and source unchanged when comparing durations. Count the completed bars actually included; do not create overnight bars merely to make the timestamp difference match the count.
Compare bars with elapsed time
B contains four times as many completed bars as A. Is it four times as deep, and is its elapsed clock time exactly four times as long?
Neither follows. Both have depth 24, retracement 40% and price change−15%. Their bar counts are 20/5=4, but the invented windows span 77 and 5 clock hours:77/5=15.4. The session gaps explain the difference. Change the calendar or the interval and you change the measurement conditions; record that as another comparison instead of quietly reusing the old numbers.
Record the result before calculating waves
Retain symbol, source, timeframe, timezone, window boundaries, completed-bar count and the explicit denominator for each ratio. Do not turn 40% or a chosen bar count into a compulsory wave rule, a completion date or a trade instruction. These endpoint examples do not supply the internal structures needed to validate a correction. Use the pattern guide for that separate question and follow the first-calculation guide with an appropriate original price series.
First calculation → · Compare Pro and Light → · Request Pro →
Sources
The measurements, arithmetic and session calendar are defined for this original teaching exercise. They are not empirical market statistics or a claimed automatic product function. Pattern background: Prognosis Software Development, Elliott Wave Theory (1996/2013), pp. 16 and 18. No source-specific duration or forecast condition is asserted; no source figure is reproduced.
Wave-pattern guide