A word on Diagonals

I recently had a very unpleasant conversation regarding diagonals: see http://marketthoughts...

The jist of a conversation was that there is no such thing as a 5-3-5-3-5 diagonal.

This is an incorrect statement. Both Frost and Prechter's Elliott Wave Principle and Robert Balan's Elliot Wave Principle Applied to The Foreign Exchange Market identify a 5-3-5-3-5 diagonal triangle.

From Frost and Prechter's Elliott Wave Principle pp. 39

...variation on this pattern occasionally appears in the Wave 1 position of impulses and in the Wave A position of zigzags. The characteristic overlapping of waves 1 and 4 and the convergence of the boundary lines into a wedge shape remain as in the ending diagonal triangle. However, the subdivisions are different, tracing out a 5-3-5-3-5 pattern.

From Robert Balan's Elliot Wave Principle Applied to The Foreign Exchange Market pp. II-2 (regarding diagonals in general)

... Overlaps between the terminals of Waves 1 and 4 are frequent but not obligatory...

From pp. II-3 (regarding leading diagonals)

...has sub-waves composed of five waves instead of the ususal "threes". ...