One of the most overlooked ingredients to achieving long-term success
in the business of speculation is a trader’s own astrological
cycles. Practically all of our efforts are put into analyzing the
market to determine the best trade set-ups that have the lowest risk
and highest probability of becoming winners. Good analytical skills are an essential part of the trade
selection process and in determining when to enter and exit the trade.
What if we could take it one step further with our analysis to
increase our probabilities of winning, and take an inward look as
well? Since traders, not
unlike individual stocks or commodities, go through personal cycles of
profit and loss, what if we could sidestep most of these losing
periods and make sure we’re back in the game during the winning
periods when we as traders experience a personal change in trend?
Astrologer and Trader W. D. Gann Exercised Discipline
Much
is mentioned of W.D. Gann’s legendary work and track record in the
trading world. He also
spent periods of time when he did not trade at all. During this time
he performed extensive research, wrote books and courses, and taught
his methods instead. He
was a patient man and certainly took advantage of his knowledge by
waiting until the ideal circumstances were present in the markets and
when his own time cycles were favorable. By doing this he made huge
profits in short periods of time.
Gann made reference in some of his writings to the importance
of a man’s personal cycles as a determinant of one's success. Since
he was also an astrologer, he definitely knew of his own astrological
time periods when he could make or lose money in the markets.
While
there will never be a foolproof method to avoid trading losses
completely, as it is
part of the cost of doing business, the
percentage of losers can be minimized and most importantly, losing
streaks and strings of losses can be eliminated if the trader is
disciplined enough not to trade when he or she is in an adverse
astrological cycle. My trading plan incorporates buy or sell technical
trading signals with my own personal planetary transits. In the past, virtually every time when my trading system
generated a buy and my personal astrological transits were stressful,
it didn’t go as planned and turned out to be a losing trade. On the other hand, when I get a strong buy or sell signal
from my plan and I execute when my astrological transits are positive,
it almost always turns out to be a winner. Sounds simple enough. The
problem partly lies in following the discipline.
Are you a trading junkie?
Do you have to trade all the time? If so, then what I just said
won’t help. You have to
be willing not to trade at certain times regardless of what the price
charts are telling you. Needless
to say, there are many factors besides being right that can result in
losses. You can get a bad
fill, get stopped out because of unexpected volatility, or even
experience mechanical difficulties, to name a few. I remember pressing
my own luck once when I was having very stressful transits with
Mercury, the planet of communications. I placed a trade and right
afterwards my computer froze up before I could place my stop loss.
I had to call my broker and was put on hold for about a half
hour. Fortunately, I trade stocks with the trend most of the time, and
no damage was done in that half hour. What if I was trading a futures
contract! So basically,
what I’m trying to say is when you’re in a negative cycle
astrologically for trading; you are damned if you do and damned if you
don’t! It almost feels
like your actions are moving the market in the opposite direction that
you’re going. As soon as you buy or sell according to plan, prices
magically reverse. You
are out of tune with the pulse of the market despite all of your very
good analytical efforts.
A Professional Astrologer Can Determine your Good and Bad Trading
Cycles
To
properly determine your own good and bad trading cycles, you need the
help of an experienced and skilled astrologer.
A computer printout that some astrological services provide
will only help minimally at best because of all of the contradictory
planetary information you will have on any given day, week, month, or
year. In fact, most
reports give you information about your planetary transits in relation
to your natal chart. This
is very limited and will result in hit and miss forecasting.
Your birth chart moves forward in time and planetary transits
to your secondary chart must be analyzed as well. There are also
planetary midpoints, transiting midpoints, Arabic parts, and a number
of other astrological points of reference that are crucial for a
proper analysis and forecast. A competent astrology professional knows
what to look for and has the ability to synthesize all the information
to determine the answer to the bottom line question, is today or this
week, month, or year, predominantly favorable or unfavorable for my
pocketbook in the markets?
One
of my astrological trading axioms is every winning or losing trade or trading period will be accompanied by
favorable or unfavorable planetary transits to your personal chart. I
have proven this to myself over the years and can prove it to anyone
that calls me for a consultation.
So what are some of the things an astrologer looks for?
For those of you new to astrology, the astrological chart is a
map of the planetary positions at your birth. It is a circle divided
into 12 segments called houses. You have planets occupying some of
these houses and one of the 12 signs will be on the cusp of each house
based on your unique time and place of birth.
Each sign has a planet that it is ruled by as well. For
example, Aries = Mars, Taurus = Venus, Gemini = Mercury, Cancer =
Moon, Leo = Sun, Virgo = Mercury, Libra = Venus, Scorpio = Pluto,
Sagittarius = Jupiter, Capricorn = Saturn, Aquarius = Uranus, Pisces =
Neptune. The 12 different houses correspond to the different areas of
your life. The money
houses are the 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 11th
houses. The 5th house is the house of speculation and this
house should be analyzed properly to see if you should be a trader in
the first place! Your calling might be in another area.
There are some great analysts and forecasters out there that
don’t trade at all. Predicting
the future is not synonymous with profiting from the prediction. Now
if your calling is trading, based on analysis of your natal chart, and
you have a valid trading system and rules suited to your personality,
we need to find out next when your profitable and unprofitable time
periods are going to be in the market.
Some periods where money can be made or lost very easily when
you execute your trades can last a matter of hours, based on the lunar
cycles, or days, based on the inner planets, and weeks, months, and
sometimes years, based on the outer planets.
Stressful Aspects
Stressful
aspects, (angular geometric relationships), by planets in transit to
the planets ruling the signs on the money houses and/or planets’
occupying those houses in your chart is one red flag for trading
losses. It’s better to stand aside.
Some of the stressful aspects between the planets include the
semi-sextile, (30 degrees), semi-square, (45 degrees), square (90
degrees), sesqui-square (135 degrees), inconjunct (150 degrees), and
opposition, (180 degrees). Conjunctions, (0 degrees), can be positive
or negative depending on the planets involved.
The harmonious, flowing aspects are the sextile, (60 degrees),
and trine, (120 degrees). It’s
alright if you have some stressful aspects if the planets involved are
also interconnected with harmonious aspects to the right planets. In
fact, the most profitable days usually happen when you have the
correct combinations of aspects occurring simultaneously with your
money planets. When there are too many stressful aspects on any given
day or longer time period, it sounds like a bunch of wrong notes on
the piano, and you are out of the trading zone and will lose money.
Harmonious Aspects
When
you have predominantly harmonious planetary aspects to the money
planets in your chart, it sounds like chords of correct notes struck
on the piano. You are in the zone. When you execute your plan you are
hitting mostly winners. For example, in my personal chart, transiting Jupiter, (the
benefic money planet), has been forming a trine, (120 degrees), to the
planet Uranus in my 5th house of speculation without too
many stressful aspects from other planets in transit. This is a very
favorable cycle for speculating. I have been on a winning streak. I
didn’t trade for about two weeks prior to this aspect because of a
very stressful transit with Saturn, (the planet of obstacles and
set-backs), forming a square, (90 degrees), to my progressed Sun.
Leo is on my 5th house of speculation and is ruled
by the Sun. Even with the
best technical trade set-ups in the world, I still would have hit a
losing streak during this period, which I avoided.
Many
traders, myself included, use astrological market analysis methods in
conjunction with technical analysis for more precise and accurate
market timing. Very few
traders are additionally aware of and trade in accord with their own
time cycles for profit and loss in the markets. Stay in the zone by
speculating at the right times astrologically, and you will have that
elusive winning edge you were always looking for!
Copyright
© 2002, T.S. Phillips, Astro Advisory Services, Inc.
