Stocks and gold hit an inflection point

Randall Ashbourne, an associate of Astrological Investing, posts a weekly market report on his web site, theidiotandthemoon.com The following is this weekend's Eye of RA report: Week beginning March 3, 2014 

Pollyanna, the SP500, logged a new all-time High on Friday, just a tad above the 1864 planetary line we thought should be hit last week.

The Nasdaq 100 also managed a new High, but the Dow Jones Industrials did not ... and nor did most of the other major world indices.

This weekend is highlighted in Forecast 2014 as a potential turning point, with the next major turn not due, astrologically, until the second half of April.

Mercury has now finished its Retrograde cycle, but both Mars and Saturn have now gone Retrograde and Jupiter will change from Retrograde to Direct later this week, just after Venus changes signs to Aquarius.

This morning, I've hit the "publish" button on the Archives 2014 page three times ... and three different versions of the page have appeared online, all containing some sort of gremlin. Merc Rx can really give you the ... irrits!


Trading in the next few days should tell us whether this rally is now ready to roll over, given the apparent divergence between the Pollyanna index and the relative under-performance of other major indices.

If the rally does now fail, the correction is likely to run an intermediate length - several weeks, rather than days.

Alternatively, Miss Polly - and others - will spurt ahead, with the SP500 probably heading above 1900.
We'll begin this weekend by taking another look at Polly's primary planets chart we've been using for the past few weeks. I indicated the 500 was playing in a price zone defined by two sets of primary planet lines ... one rising and the other falling.

The index continued to maintain contact with the pink Mercury line for the first four days of last week, surging on Friday to make a potential false break of the falling, dark-green Venus line.

If the rally now stalls and prices decline, we have some idea of the downside targets. If it continues heading north, we can use the Weekly Planets chart to determine the upside targets.

I said last weekend: "Since we're in the statistically-positive period between 3Q and New Moon ... and with the Sun due to trine Jupiter ... 1864 remains a valid target for the coming week."

Polly went to 1867.92 on Friday, before backing away. There is another layer of Saturn price resistance just below the 1880s. However, a breakout above 1864, is likely to open up the 1920s area as the next major target for the rally.

We also need to watch what happens now with the Bollinger Band scrunching on the weekly charts. I mentioned this last weekend, since the Bi-BB trading rules outlined in The Technical Section of The Idiot & The Moon worked so well on daily charts in the preceding weeks of decline and bounceback.

If the rally reverses course, we need to bear in mind that the first move is likely to be in the wrong direction - meaning that after the potential correction completes, the index will launch into a very strong rally spike. And, if the bands suddenly start to widen as Polly soars north into the 1900s, we need to be aware that it will be the final leg of the current rally and will be followed by a very sharp and fast plunge.

Last weekend, we also took a look at the planetary lines containing price action on the ASX200 and I indicated the relative strength of the Big Bird oscillator suggested 5466 or 5504 should be hit last week ... but that the other Birds were rolling over "suggesting the end of this rally is now very close".

Auntie didn't quite hit 5466, but is now fairly obviously falling under the influence of a downtrending Venus line.

The price of gold has stalled after a one-day break of the 1336 Pluto line and is also in danger of losing the support of a rising Sun line. Intermediate-range positive divergence remains intact on weekly charts, but Big Bird is not a picture of glowing health on the daily, where the last price high coincided with a decidedly lower peak in the oscillator.

It would seem then that both stocks and gold have arrived at an inflection point, having reached the planetary price targets we thought "should" be hit ... with a smidgeon over on Polly and a whisker under on the ASX.

The next move isn't obvious ... well, it's not to me. I lean more towards a probable decline, but there is a danger in getting married to that expectation. Hopefully, the next few days will provide greater certainty.
Safe trading - RA

Astrological Investing's associate, Randall Ashbourne, author of the eBook, The Idiot and The Moon, and The Idiot and the Moon, Forecast 2014, writes a free weekly column titled, The Eye of Ra on his web site in  which he explains the potential impact of astrological aspects and the current state of technical conditions. Ashbourne's charts are revealing illustrations of exactly what has occurred in the market and the probability of what to expect.
Important reading:  Randall Ashbourne's The Idiot and The Moon, Forecast 2014
(Disclaimer: This article is not advice or a recommendation to trade stocks; it is merely educational material.)
Copyright: Randall Ashbourne - 2011-2014

Retrogrades will cause confusion

Randall Ashbourne, an associate of Astrological Investing, posts a weekly market report on his web site, theidiotandthemoon.com The following is this weekend's Eye of RA report: Week beginning January 27, 2014

Predicting the intermediate future of markets is likely to be challenging for the first few months of 2014.

Venus, Mercury and Mars have a series of Retrogrades which will have traders, policy makers and politicians constantly changing direction.

We can all go nuts trying to work out what's happening. Or simply follow The Idiot.

A few weeks ago, all of the "experts" were certain 2014 was set to be another bumper year for stock markets. In the past few days, they've started to become a lot more uncertain.

After Friday's ugly slump, some are now worried it's the start of The Big One. Ho hum. It is, of course, possible; just not probable.

Venus goes back into Direct motion again next Friday, on the same day Jupiter opposes Pluto. The following week, Mercury will go Retrograde. And when it goes Direct, Mars will (appear to) go backwards.

The probability is that there will be a series of sharp moves and reversals throughout the first few months of the year.

Traders will need to stay nimble and not get married to any particular notion of what the markets "should" be doing.

Last weekend we took a broad look at the potential for a big turnaround in gold this year, examining the technical condition of the XAU, the Philadelphia gold and silver index, and three of the world's biggest gold miners. Their condition has only improved since.

Those of you who already have Forecast 2014 will realise that the price of gold itself hit a key Pluto target during Friday's trading ... and will also know all the other price levels likely to be of major importance throughout the year.

And the Forecast also contains the important planetary price levels for most of the world's leading stock indices.

I stress again that we cannot yet be certain that gold has made its final price Low. As I said last weekend, what we have is "a bounce from the obvious" and that bounces from the "obvious" - in gold's case, an apparent double-bottom - are sometimes relatively short-lived.

It is also "obvious" from the weekly chart below, that gold has a lot of work to do yet before we can be sure the correction from the 2011 peak is finished and that the metal is launching into a new Bull phase.

Gold made its double-bottom low on December 31 ... a second price Low that arrived with very significant positive divergence in our Big Bird oscillator, indicating strong potential for an intermediate-term bounceback.

While price on Friday ran into Pluto price resistance, it seems still to have more room to move higher before it starts running into the technical barriers.

The technical conditions in the gold weekly chart are pretty much the reverse of the SP500's chart. The build-up of negative divergence in Pollyanna's Big Bird was a long one.

As price climbed a channel, Big Bird made its last decent peak way back in May, 2013. In short, it's a build-up of divergence that won't be undone by a few days of price drops. However ugly.

But just as gold has a lot of work to do to overcome its technical barriers to launch into a new Bull phase, Miss Polly has lots of support levels which have to fail before we can declare a Bear.

So, let's not get caught-up in the talkfest. It certainly appears as if stocks have been too overbought for too long and may be entering a correction which is long overdue.

And gold and gold stocks are bouncing strongly, having become much too oversold. Nevertheless, the attempts to manipulate gold continue and danger remains in becoming too Bullish too soon.

According to reports this weekend, the US Federal Reserve managed to repatriate only 5 tonnes of Germany's gold last year. This from the hundreds of tonnes the Bundesbank is supposed to have stored in New York and at Fort Knox ... and which the Germans demanded last year be shifted out of those facilities and back to Germany.

So far, everyone is remarkably silent about exactly why it'll take 7 years to give Germany back what it owns. The Bundesbank makes a few polite noises about "logistical" problems. *Gag*Cough*Splutter*Guffaw*

I don't wish to be uncharitable or provocative, but history is history. And the Germans have a certain talent for being able to organise the mass movement of ... things. I am, of course, talking about Mercedes and BMWs and Miele machines. What did you think I was talking about?!

Anyway, I think we can all agree that if the Germans really wanted to shift several hundred tonnes of anything, they'd be able to do it with their usual precision and efficiency.

Just how long the world will swallow this story about the Bundesbank being unable to organise a few trucks, planes and a ship or two remains to be seen.

And that, perhaps, is the biggest danger. Because if it actually gets proved that the US Federal Reserve stole and sold the gold reserves in Fort Knox and New York, believing they could manipulate paper markets to buy it back cheaper, we are going to see a world financial crisis unlike anything ever seen before.

And speaking of track records ... the US Federal Reserve has no history of theft, bubble creation and causing massive worldwide financial meltdowns. Gag*Cough*Splutter*Guffaw*

But, but ... none of this concerns us. We are mere minnows in a pool of predators. So, we do need to be aware that the boys with the biggest bank account would appear to have a need to get their hands on a LOT of physical gold at the cheapest price they can get it. And that means there are likely to be more sudden billion-dollar raids on the gold price.

And it also means they didn't spend this amount of money - $85 billion a month - driving up the stock markets month-after-month to unload all their overpriced crud onto the gullible in one bad Friday on Wall Street. It's most unlikely they've dumped everything they need to dump yet.

On another topic, I receive fairly regular requests from readers to "link" on social media sites, which then want me to join and create a profile. It's not something I have the time for, or any inclination to do.

Safe trading - RA

(scroll down to view previous editions of The Eye of Ra)

Astrological Investing's associate, Randall Ashbourne, author of the eBook, The Idiot and The Moon, and The Idiot and the Moon, Forecast 2014, writes a free weekly column titled, The Eye of Ra on his web site in  which he explains the potential impact of astrological aspects and the current state of technical conditions. Ashbourne's charts are revealing illustrations of exactly what has occurred in the market and the probability of what to expect.
Important reading:  Randall Ashbourne's The Idiot and The Moon, Forecast 2014
(Disclaimer: This article is not advice or a recommendation to trade stocks; it is merely educational material.)
Copyright: Randall Ashbourne - 2011-2014

Welcome to Astrological Investing's Blog

Welcome to Astrological Investing's blog. We'll be blogging on current astrological events, financial astrology, and posting excerpts from articles found at our financial astrology articles page on the home site.

Each month when she sends the New Moon newsletter to subscribers, Marley will post the upcoming monthly calendars of daily planetary aspects for the NYSE, FTSE and the ASX time zones. (Even though these will be posted for your use, we still recommend having a Llewellyn Astrological Calendar, - and if you haven't purchased your 2009 calendar yet, it can be purchased from astrologicalinvesting.com's Amazon affiliated bookstore.)

For a while now, we have felt that Astrologicalinvesting.com really needed a blog - changing and updating the web site pages for a few paragraphs with astrological comments at random times is only easily done in a blogging format. Also, along with our blogging comes the ability for members and visitors to comment or ask questions.

We determined that 8:15 on Saturday February 21, 2009 would be the day to announce and launch the blog. (Click on the chart image to see it zoomed to full size.)

Launching the Blog and Chart Interpretation

What we really wanted, of course, was perfect timing for the initial launch of this blog. And being astrologers one would figure we would have control of our future and success with being able to choose the perfect timing, right?

Well there are limits in this mortal world - and perfection is hard to come by. And...well, from experience, we have learned that some of our best designs have been laughed at, not just by mortals, but by the Gods themselves - or whatever Supreme Power there is up there making sure that mere mortals are humbled if they dare aspire Hubris. (Of course, when we made our mistakes we learned the very hardest, first-hand way to do astrological research!)

Looking at an ephemeris for the year 2009, we found nothing resembling "Perfect" timing. Saturn's opposition with Uranus along with retrograde periods of Mercury and Venus threw out more than half the year!

And yet we felt strongly about the addition of this blog.

So, in the light of the astrological landscape, if we really wanted to launch a blog in 2009 - and we did - we felt we needed to give it our best shot in February when there would be a huge line-up of Aquarian planets, and an extraordinary cluster of mutual receptions.

Jupiter and Neptune in mutual reception being in each others traditionally ruled signs; Uranus and Neptune in mutual reception in each others modern ruled signs; Uranus in Pisces and Jupiter Aquarius in mutual reception in a mix of rulerships! Saturn and Mercury in each others traditionally ruled signs.

Also, the Saturn Uranus opposition would be separating.

Not a perfect chart, but one with plenty of promise.

The Aries Point - Looking at the chart you will see that the angles are at 0 degrees in Cardinal signs. Cardinal Points will add a thrust of "prominence" to the blog. The Aries Point (which is what 0 degrees Cardinal is called) certainly gives it a full promise of our blog being viewed!

Venus rules the chart with Libra on the Ascendant. Although Venus is not strong nor particularly happy in the zodiac sign of Aries (she is considered in "detriment" in Aries) all that is set aside, as she is lifted up and "accidentally" dignified by her angular presence in her Natural home, the 7th house.

The Moon, although decreasing in light, will progress to conjunct the N Node, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars and Neptune before she reaches the Sun; and she too, is also "accidentally" dignified by her 4th house placement; and Venus and La Luna are involved in very promising sextile aspects in the horoscope.

Venus sextiles Jupiter and Mars; while the Moon is exact sextile to the Ascendant, ruled by Venus.

The Sun is in the imaginatively creative sign of Pisces in the 6th house; after having moved away from his detrimental sign of Aquarius, he trines the MC. For those Fixed Stars enthusiasts, notice the Sun is conjunct a fortunate fixed star, Formalhaut. Formalhuat can bring eminence, fortune and power, "it is often linked with a destiny towards occult or religious affairs and is said by Ebertin and Hoffman to offer success for scientists and writers".

Uranus is also in the 6th. Uranus rules the internet and many astrologers agree it rules astrology.

We interpret the placement of the Sun and Uranus in the 6th as an indicator of the very fact that the blog will serve the needs of the astrologicalinvesting.com Home site - which is basically, a financial astrology teaching web site on the world wide web. Considering that the Sixth house rules High School education, and since we teach the basics of financial astrology - not at an "elementary nor university level" (and definitely not with the usual approach to understanding financial markets!), it seems fitting to have the Sun - and Uranus placed there.

Reminded of how much fun the 5th house is - a stellium resides in the 5th house - so we are planning to have some fun with this.

Gambling. Risk taking. Fifth house things. That is what astrologicalinvesting.com discusses on a regular basis - We talk about investments, enterprises, reducing our risk in the market, and taking chances; we bet that with a combination of fundamental and technical analysis in concert with astrology we'll get it right and make some money.

The fifth house is a money house and it has to do with taking care of what you have earned and risking it on your idea. (And personally we feel that making money is a fun idea!)

Jupiter in the 5th is strong conjunct Mars; sextile Venus, gives us much luck - and from those aspects give us the courage to go where some may fear to tread.

Jupiter conjunct Mercury in Aquarius. *Ahem* need we say more? This is a BLOG for goodness sake! We have big ideas and plan to tell you all about them! We expect to quench your thirst for knowledge - and learn some stuff too. :-)

Pluto in the fourth, prominently placed on the IC square the Ascendant reflects the dramatic changes we are making with our web identity. Pluto is sextile the Sun promising Power in the way we express ourselves, and offering opportunity for self renewal when necessary. Pluto in the 4th also gives Power at home - which is where we work, and want it. It's where we do our stuff and take command of things.

The Uranus Saturn opposition is separating. In Horary astrology separating aspects represent the past. Though this is not a horary chart, we hope that we have learned our lessons of the past; and the tension created by these two Lords in the 6th and 12th houses expresses our desire to serve and teach. Moving forward into the future with respect for what we have learned in the past.

And so...it is launched. February 21, 2009. 8:15 PM CST.