Self-fulfilling prophecy or not ...
You wrote it, not me: "... and while it is not a hard, provable scientific theory ...
The following is [valid] criticism of EW per Wikipedia contribution. This gives us a hypothesis which at least diminishes a theory. Odd twist, but true.
The premise that markets unfold in recognizable patterns contradicts the efficient market hypothesis, which says that prices cannot be predicted from market data such as moving averages and volume. By this reasoning, if successful market forecasts were possible, investors would buy (or sell) when the method predicted a price increase (or decrease), to the point that prices would rise (or fall) immediately, thus destroying the profitability and predictive power of the method. In efficient markets, knowledge of the Elliott wave principle among investors would lead to the disappearance of the very patterns they tried to anticipate, rendering the method, and all forms of technical analysis, useless.
My claim is not that EW is worthless, but that other technical analysis is better. Why? Because other methods leave far less opportunity for interpretation.
You also wrote: "If enough traders believe that a turning point has been reached and they switch positions accordingly, it will make the prediciton a reality."
Ever consider how much market money is tied up in funds? There are more funds than there are stocks, for Pete's sake. Funds -- other than hedge funds -- are not free to switch between long and short positions (because the SEC doesn't allow it); and most funds, whether stock funds or index funds, at least advertise that they take some pride in holding their investments (which are usually constructed from fundamental considerations, not chart wizardry) for relatively long periods of time. In other words, they are not going to be surfing the Elliot Wave and screwing around with Fibonacci numbers.
Sorry, but your assertion that Fibonacci and EW traders make the market does not stand up to scrutiny.
