PostHeaderIcon Nasty but Hamonious

After reaching a high of 4808 at the start of 2022, it was a downward journey for the rest of the year. At least, to a casual observer, that is how it appeared. Looking deeper at the S&P behavior reveals something humbling. The declines on the S&P 500 were occurring in harmony with science and Nature. Consider the following chart segment of the S&P from early 2022. In particular, consider the move lower from A to B. The recovery attempt from B to C was an amount equal to 61.8% of the A to B amount. The move lower (C to D) was an amount equal to 78.6% of the A to B amount. The move higher (E to F) was 78.6% of the A-B amount. The substantial move lower F to G was 161.8% of the A-B amount.

What do these various numbers (61.8%, 78.6%, 161.8%) have in common? They are all Fibonacci retracements/extensions. The Fibonacci recursive sequence is 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144…. Taking one of these terms and dividing it by the prior term gives figure that converges on 1.618. This is known in science and Nature as the Golden Mean. Taking the inverse of 1.618 yields a value 61.8%. Taking the inverse of the root of 1.618 gives 78.6%.

So while the price action of a stock, a commodity, or an index might appear to be random and nasty, peel back the layers of the veil and you will all too often find price moves that are in alignment with the Golden Mean.

PostHeaderIcon Rough Road Ahead

The sign says it all. We are transitioning from a ridiculously low rate environment to a higher rate situation. The Federal Reserve bowing to political pressure and market temper tantrums refused to raise rates in 2019. Then 2020 arrived and with it came Covid and spiraling mortality rates. The taps were opened wide and money flooded the financial system in a bid to keep it afloat.

But, like the gardener who starts to water his garden and walks away, the FED left the tap running too long. In classic textbook fashion, this excess money has now created an inflationary monster. The FED is now scrambling to slay this beast.

The Bond market is anticipating that rates will move higher and that the FED’s balance sheet will be run down to drain money from the system. This is a correct anticipation on the part of the Bond market.

Equity analysts are now likewise scrambling to re-jig their NPV models in light of a higher discount rate. Mr. Market is uncertain whether to rally, go sideways, or drop as the yield curve flirts with inversion.

Volatility is the new mantra. If you know how to use technical chart indicators and hourly charts, you can take advantage of this volatility. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people have not honed this skill. 2022 could be a rough year for people who follow the buy and hold philosophy.

Will the economy tip over into recession? Or, is it robust enough to handle real interest rates going positive? McWhirter astrology says that with the North Node of Moon in Taurus, the economy will gradually slow from here until the end of the current 18.6 year cycle in 2026. The final phase of 18 year cycles usually bring with them recessionary pain, and lots of it.

To get a glimpse of what may come to North American shores, the following chart shows the ETF (N:EZU) that tracks the Euro market complex.

The MAC-D is below zero, the SMIE Oscillator is in negative territory and the Lane Stochastic has further to fall into negative territory. The European market complex is broken right at the moment.

In North America, the chart of the S&P 500 tells more of the tale. The MAC-D is above the critical zero line, but the SMIE Oscillator and Lane Stochastic are looking shaky. If the MAC-D should dip beneath zero, things could get rather ugly. If I turn my attention to Quantum Lines, I note that the 5th harmonic of the Jupiter and Neptune Quantum Lines have been violated. This is not a good sign. Support now is apparent at a Saturn 5th harmonic QL (4315 on the S&P) and failing that at Neptune and Jupiter 4th harmonics (4256 or 4125). There is some more weakness coming in the near term. Whether either of the actual 4th harmonic levels will be hit or whether a mid-point between them and the recently violated 5th harmonics acts as support remains to be seen. My hope is that the Saturn 5th harmonic level at 4315 acts as support.

Do not lose sight of the fact we are in a Shemitah Year which started in September 2021 and runs until late August 2022. Powerful events unfold in Shemitah Years in accordance with Biblical texts. I envisioned that interest rates would be a theme in this Shemitah Year. Sure enough – bond markets are trending strongly negative. What I did not fathom was the Ukrainian situation unfolding as it has.

The volatility will continue as we venture deeper into 2022. I will do my best to keep readers and subscribers apprised of what I see coming with regards to cycles and planetary events.

PostHeaderIcon There is Lithium and then there is Lithium

Lithium stocks are all the rage these days. But….buyer beware.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of lithium batteries.

First, there is the type with a short lifetime. Take some video with your camera, the battery runs low, and you have to recharge it. Do some work with your re-chargeable drill, the battery runs low, and you stop to recharge. No big deal. We are quite used to batteries like this. These lithium batteries are made using lithium carbonate material. This is the type of lithium that is extracted from the salt salar formations in parts of South America. The market is littered with companies of all market cap sizes touting their South American projects. Carbonate material can also be found in some deep wells. Again, the market has no shortage of companies touting their brine well projects.

Second, we are witnessing the electrification of vehicles. The batteries that power Teslas, however, cannot be the same as the ones that power your electric drill. A car battery must have a longer life between charges. This charge longevity can only come from batteries made using lithium hydroxide. The most economic source of lithium hydroxide is spodumene rock. But, here is the problem. There are not many companies with hard rock lithium projects. The ones that do exist are still a ways off from any type of mining scenario. And once the rock is mined, there is a processing component to the story that will allow for the lithium hydroxide extraction. It is possible to take the lithium carbonate from a South American type project and chemically convert it to lithium hydroxide. But, the cost is prohibitive. Lithium pricing is dominated by China. Right now the price of lithium hydroxide is less than the price of lithium carbonate.

Take the case of NYSE: LTHM. This US based operator has a South American project and it converts some of the carbonate to hydroxide. But, its profit margins are squeezed accordingly. Is this stock worth $23? Probably not. It is being held aloft because of the current lithium battery craze.

Take the case of Piedmont Lithium (NYSE:PLL). This is a screw up of epic magnitude. The company raised a huge sum of money to pursue its North Carolina hard rock project. Plus it carries a 37% interest in a Quebec, Canada hard rock project. The Quebec project is still a ways off from a mining scenario. The North Carolina project is a “shit show”. It seems the Company overlooked one critical element. They forgot to reach out and embrace the local County Commission. Years ago when I was chasing a rare earth project in Lincoln County, New Mexico I was called on the carpet by the 6 person Lincoln County Commission. They wanted details on what I thought would be water usage, dust creation, noise levels, highway traffic density. This 6 person group had the power to make me or break me. In the case of Piedmont, the overlooked local Commission now has imposed a series of mining moratoriums that now extend into summer 2022. On the PLL website, there is an aerial view of the area of the planned mine. There are houses and small acreages located very near to the planned site. These local residents have no desire to live beside a mine. It is plainly evident why the Commission has slapped a moratorium on the project. Is PLL worth $51? Not a chance. The lithium craze is keeping it aloft. People who are just looking at the PLL story at face value are buying the shares. They have no idea that the project is under moratorium. This detail has been downplayed and smoothed over by PLL and their propaganda machine.

Lastly take the case of Lithium Americas (TSX: LAC, NYSE:LAC). This is a high flying stock. They have a South American project that is based on brine wells and lithium carbonate. They also have a project in northern Nevada near a geological formation called the McDermitt caldera (an ancient volcano site of 16 million years ago). The lithium is embedded in a claystone formation that geologists call hectorite. Preliminary testing suggests an acid leach process will be required. The economics of the process have not been detailed yet. But, here is the rub – the lithium to be extracted will be carbonate. Is LAC worth $30? Not a chance, I say. This stock is caught up in the lithium craze.

This blog obviously has nothing to do with astrology, astronomy or market cycles. I am writing this post to help people avoid getting tangled up in the lithium craze.

Bottom line – you want a hard rock lithium story. It has to be close to being an operating mining scenario and the company must have plans to process the rock to extract the lithium hydroxide. Moreover, the company must be fully permitted by all levels of government right down to any local Commissions. Anything else is just chasing a dream….. Buyer beware.

PostHeaderIcon Richard Ney’s book

The other day I was searching through the available books from my local Library. I spotted one called Making It In The Market – so I ordered it in.

Turns out the book was written in 1975 by Richard Ney who was a financial advisor in New York. He did a few appearances in Hollywood movies, which put him in close contact with some “monied” people.

In his book he makes the claim that the equity market is dominated by market makers who are tasked with ensuring orderly trading in stocks. Each market maker is assigned a basket of stocks to supervise. They are also free to use their own money to amass positions in the stocks they manage. There is an unwritten rule that says market makers will always collaborate together to either give the overall market an uptrend or a downtrend. An individual market maker will never run against the herd, so to speak.

He further goes on to reveal that a market maker holding shares in Company ‘A’ will buy more shares and cause the price to move up. This will grab media attention. People will read about the stock move in the media and call their broker to place a buy order. Through it all, the market maker is in control. Once he has sold off his position to hungry retail investors seeking to get rich, the price trend of the stock will have no more support and price will drop.

Ney wraps up the book with a detailed explanation of 3 lines that should be sketched on monthly price charts. The angles defined by these lines are key to understanding future trends.

All in all, a very revealing book. If your local Library has it (or can get it on an inter-library loan) I suggest taking the time to read it.

PostHeaderIcon Jan 5th, 2022 – Sell, Sell, Sell!

As suggested in my most recent blog, the month of January has a whole lot of cosmic energy squeezed into a lunar cycle. The first trigger point I listed was Jan 5 and Moon being Void of Course. These Moon VOC events have a tendency to cause unsettled nerves across equity markets.

Today, Jan 5, started more or less normal. The S&P was quiet for the first couple hours. This allowed me to gracefully sidestep a couple long positions (Borg Warner – NYSE BWA) and (ERO Copper – TSX: ERO) to take a modest gain. My trades came just in time because the S&P soon turned nasty as the following hourly chart shows. As I post this blog, the March S&P is down 70 points. January is not over yet. There are several more trigger points to come….

PostHeaderIcon January 2022 Lunar Cycle

2022 begins with a New Moon on January 2nd. This lunation will have Sun and Moon at the 12-14 Capricorn point. This lunar cycle will run until February 1.

This is a highly unusual lunar cycle. This New Moon comes exactly 180 degrees to the NYSE 1792 natal horoscope Ascendant point. History is trying to tell us something?

Here is how I describe this lunation event in the 2022 Almanac:

The lunation is in alignment with the NYSE 1792 natal Descendant and is 180 degrees opposite the natal Ascendant. This cycle is highlighted by having Mercury and Venus in retrograde which can lead to trend volatility. Venus will record its Inferior Conjunction early in the month. In addition, January will see the North Node change signs and enter Taurus. This lunar cycle runs until January 31, 2022 and could be greatly energized. 

Key dates during this lunar cycle are:

•           January 5: Moon VOC

•           January 7: Moon passes Neptune and natal mid-Heaven point

•           January 7: Mercury at greatest easterly elongation

•           January 8: Venus at Inferior Conjunction. It will appear as the Morning Star later in January

•           January 10: Moon VOC

•           January 14: Mercury turns retrograde

•           January 16: Moon passes 14 of Cancer. This is a Sunday. Watch for a market reaction the Friday before or on Monday January 17

•           January 17: Moon at maximum declination

•           January 26: Mars at its minimum declination

•           January 28: Venus retrograde event is complete

•           January 29: Moon passes NYSE co-ruler Mars. This is a weekend. Watch for a market reaction immediately before or after the weekend 

•           January 30: Moon at minimum declination.

January will be full of events that can translate into extreme volatility. Venus retrograde, Mercury retrograde, Mars at declination minimum, Mercury at greatest easterly elongation, Moon VOC. This is quite a collection. Get ready for what could be an explosive month.

PostHeaderIcon 2022 – Ten Trends to Follow

https://www.weforum.org/videos/ep-10-launch-of-the-top-10-emerging-tech-of-2021-10-years-of-emergingtech

This is a link to a 39 minute video in which ten investment themes are discussed. They include:

1. lower carbon footprint. In the Astrology Letter, I will continue my review of traditional industrial companies that are embracing green energy. I will examine price cycles and the influence of astrology on these cycles. I will also continue looking at companies embracing energy storage strategies (like TSXv: Strategic Resources with its Vanadium mining project that will lead to Vanadium Redox batteries for large scale energy storage).

2.self fertilizing crops. I will be searching for publicly-listed agro companies that are developing GMO plants that fix Nitrogen into the soil. I will examine the astrology-related price trends of these stocks.

3. green ammonia. This theme was reviewed in December 2021. Some key stocks were named and studied in the context of Astrology.

4. breath sensing of disease. Insert a semiconductor into the mouth. Have the person exhale breath across the sensor. Gasses emitted from diseased tissue in the body will generate an impulse signal on the semiconductor. In 2022, I will be seeking out bio-medical companies pursuing this technology. These companies will be examined for trading opportunities using astrology and other chart technicals.

5. local drugs. Instead of taking a drug made by a big pharma company, what if a local pharmacy could tailor-make a variant of the drug to suit your personal level of a disease? The search is on to identify public companies that are playing in this thematic area.

6. wireless biomarkers. What if your medical condition mandated you jab yourself 2X a day to measure your blood parameters? How would life improve if you had, say, a contact lens in your eye that could sense glucose in your system and transmit that signal to an insulin pump attached to your body?

7. tele-health. This is the way of the future. No more sitting in a Doc’s office waiting. Sensors will gather your bodily data and transmit it to a health care provider. I am aware of some public companies working in this arena. I will seek out more and identify the astro phenomena that drive cycles in share price.

8. charging of gadgets in the air: What if a farmer could implant a sensor in his field that continually measured Nitrogen levels in the soil? What if this type of sensing could be extended to monitoring all facets of the world around us? What if by 2025 there were 40 billion sensors operating? How would they all stay charged and operational? The answer – 5G. I will continue my probe into 5G and tech companies that stand to profit.

9. microsatellites. What if we could launch arrays of small micro-satellites into orbit? These could provide wi-fi to all corners of the globe. This is being done privately right now by Elon Musk and his Star Link system. As publicly traded players follow suit, I will seek to examine their share price cycles and underlying astrology to identify trading entry points.

10. 3-D printed buildings: Take plastic, melt it and squeeze it through a nozzle on a printer. You can make any 3-D shape you want. Now enlarge this many times. Take dirt, add water and a chemical binder. Have a printer squeeze this slurry through a nozzle. You can now 3-D print a house! I will be watching for publicly traded firms to embrace this mode of construction. Significant trading and investing opportunities could be at hand.

PostHeaderIcon Inflection Point Dead Ahead!

Two bad puke-offs in 2 days on the S&P? What gives? The perennial optimists are saying this is just an orderly bit of profit taking. The screaming hot inflation data rearing its head around the globe US says something else is going on. Markets are getting afraid. An inflation-stressed consumer is a problem, especially when so much of GDP activity is consumer spending driven.

From my vantage point, I use technical astrology methods to try to spot turning points on the markets. While my work identifies a number of sensitive points each year that could deliver trend changes, I take a step back and look at the bigger picture. The bigger picture since March 2020 has been dominated by government spending and central banker liquidity injections. But that is changing rapidly. Central bankers are taking steps to drain the party punch bowl. Governments have all but stopped support payments to people economically affected by Covid.

Now the turning points I identify are taking on a new sense of urgency.

Venus and Mars are speaking in loud volumes. Both planets are at their minimum declination levels. When either one is at a declination max or min, there is potential for a trend change. When both at once are at a declination extreme…be prepared for some unsettling behavior, like the sell offs of the past 2 days.

Using Kaballah sacred math, I have learned to identify some Venus cycles across time. The end of each cycle holds potential for a trend change on equity markets. A key Venus interval is hitting right now! The starting point for the application of these Venus intervals is the March 2009 lows. Along the way, over the past 12 years, the accuracy to which these Venus cycles have aligned to short term trend inflections is staggering.

I also keep a close eye on the Bradley Model which was created in 1946 by astrologer Donald Bradley (a.k.a. Garth Allan). The following image shows that this model is pointing to a severe hairpin inflection right now! We could see prices weaken for the next couple weeks, provided central bankers do not step in to stop the damage.

If the market is to endure a sell-off for the next couple weeks, I say good! Bring it on! The major social trends that are in play right now are not going away. The move to Electric Vehicles will march on. The move to AI will move forward. New, faster chipsets will be created. Copper mining activities will not be curtailed. A good sell-off will present a new set of buying opportunities on stocks aligned to these future trends.

In my Astrology Letter, I go to great lengths to introduce readers to stocks poised to benefit from the major changes that are set to sweep society. In recent issues, I have highlighted the start of a shift to indoor agriculture and the entrenchment of DNA genome analysis in the health care sector. These are only two themes. I have much more to share as 2022 dawns. I do hope you will consider joining my growing list of subscribers at $20 per month.

PostHeaderIcon Crude Oil – astro connections

Crude Oil is the focus of consumers these days as gasoline prices start to painfully bite. In my annual Astrology Almanacs I present the astrology of various commodity futures. Crude Oil is a curious case study. In the Mar 30, 1983 horoscope (that’s the day Crude futures started trading in New York), there is a very obvious rectangle formation that appears if you join the locations of Moon, Node, Neptune and Mars.

My back-testing has shown time and again that IF the powers-that-be want a trend change, it will come either in relation to the points of the rectangle or to declination features.

Crude Oil futures

On the above chart I have super-imposed some green boxes. That on the left shows in April 2021 Crude prices broke out of a consolidation pattern as Sun was passing one of the 1983 rectangle points. In June, Sun passing 0 degrees to the 1983 Node location gave no trend change because those in control were waiting for another astro event which came about 9 days later as Saturn passed the mid-way point of one of the sides of the 1983 rectangle. Price then trended down until August 20. What happened at that date? Mars was passing mid-way to the other side of the 1983 rectangle. We are now seeing evidence that Oil might be wanting to make a top as Mars and Sun both are passing the 1983 rectangle point defined by Mars. If the power-players want this to be a top, it will be so. The Wilder Volatility Stop is signaling a trend reversal on the daily chart. Gasoline, Diesel and Crude oil inventory levels are all closing in on their 5 year averages. Refinery utilization is at 86% and gaining as switch-overs to making heating oil are completed. These fundamental factors are further pointing to a trend reversal. Astrology can often help one re-frame the fundamentals and see a commodity through a different lens. Crude is a classic case….

PostHeaderIcon ERO Copper (TSX:ERO)

Planetary declination often quietly plays a role in trend change turning points on stocks. A case in point is ERO Copper (TSX/NYSE:ERO).

ERO made its first trade debut in Canada on Oct 19, 2017. At that time, Moon was within a whisker of being at 0 degrees declination. So too were Venus and Mars.

Since the 2020 Covid-panic lows, ERO has had a powerful run to the upside. But, in May 2021 the momentum ran out of steam at just shy of $30. My first inclination at seeing this was to look at planetary declination. Were any planets at declination levels that had a curious resemblance to the declination levels in play at Oct 19, 2017 ?

It turns out at the May 2021 high, Moon was near its maximum declination. So too were Mars and Venus. Wow! That’s a curious enough resemblance to grab my attention!

As of here and now, price action has declined a Fibonacci 38.2% of the total price gain from March 2020 to May 2021.

I seldom try to get out in front of a stock with wild-eyed predictions of when and where price will start going up again. When I see the trend change with an astrology connection, I let the trend run its course. I monitor trend using the Welles Wilder indicator called Parabolic Stop & Reverse (PSR). I make a couple tweaks to the parameters of the indicator and then wait for the next trend change. When I see the PSR signal a trend change, I will confirm that there is an astrology influence also at work.

I will be closely watching ERO in the coming days for an entry point to get long.

And by the way, on June 15, 2021 ERO started trading in New York as well. That date had Sun at 120 degrees to where Sun was at on Oct 19, 2017. That date had Sun at 90 degrees to where Mars was at on Oct 19, 2017. June 15, 2021 had both Sun and Venus just a bit off their maximum declinations.

Is all of this a coincidence?

No it is not. Welcome to the world of astrology where patterns are hidden in plain sight, visible to only those who understand basic astrological science. This is the kind of stuff I write about in my subscription-based Astrology Letter.

ERO COPPER