"Most Gann aficionados know that Gann used astrology and that the most successful traders use it in their trading, as it is the hidden undercurrent that runs the markets. J.P. Morgan, the founder of the Morgan bank, was fond of saying that "anyone can be a millionaire, but to become a billionaire, you need an astrologer." He had a private astrologer, Evageline Adams, who helped him tremendously. I have been fortunate to purchase financial astrological books from her library.
It is a little known fact that W. D. Gann went to India and studied Indian Sidereal Astrology. In his notebooks we find sketches of astrological symbols on his charts; and in his memoirs, he discusses his journey to India. In fact, the famous Gann wheel was first used by tea merchants in seventeenth century India. Gann also discussed the importance of using the starting date of when the first futures contract for a commodity began trading for predicting the future of that commodity. To my knowledge, there are very few individuals who use these starting dates to successfully time the markets even though my experience in using Indian Sidereal astrology has shown that these charts are invaluable.
Below is a brief introduction to Indian Sidereal Astrology, an overview of Indian time cycles and how they can be used, and a forecast through 2017 for the U.S. stock market based on this system.
The Western Zodiac vs. the Indian Zodiac
Indian astrology is over 5000 years old and has its foundation in ancient science. Parashara, a great seer or ancient scientist, intuited the laws of space and time responsible for the evolution of human consciousness and recorded his findings in a book called the Brihat Hora Sastra.
The first major difference between Indian and Western astrology lies in the calculation of the longitude of the planets. Ancient Indian astrologers observed that the equinoxes and solstices moved backward by one degree every 72 years, an astronomical phenomenon now known as precession. Over time this has resulted in a difference of slightly over 23 degrees between the tropical Zodiac, used by Western astrologers, and the sidereal Zodiac, used by Indian astrologers. In essence, the two systems differ in their choice of a zero point for Aries--the Western system uses the position of the spring equinox, while the Indian system uses a fixed star. Thus when the Sun is moving into Aries according to the Western system, it is still at 6 degrees Pisces in the Indian system. (For a further discussion of the differences, please see my article in the Winter 1989 NCGR Journal.)
Planetary Periods: Beyond Transits
A dasha is a period of time during which one's life is influenced or governed by a particular planet. For example, the shortest period, the Sun period, lasts six years, while the longest period, Venus, lasts twenty years. These cycles unfold in a fixed sequence and comprise 120 years before they repeat. The order of the cycles is:
Ketu (Moon's South Node): 7 years
Venus: 20 years
Sun: 6 years
Moon: 10 years
Mars: 7 years
Rahu: (North Node) 18 years
Jupiter: 16 years
Saturn: 19 years
Mercury: 17 years.
Where the cycle begins is based on the exact position of the moon at the time of birth. For example, when soybeans started trading in 1936, the moon was in the constellation (nakshatra) of Orion, which is ruled by the planet Mars. Thus a sequential unfoldment of cycles began with a seven years Mars period followed by Rahu (North Node of Moon), 18 years, Jupiter 16 years, into its current Saturn period that lasts 20 years etc. If beans had begun trading a day later, then the cycle would have begun from the next constellation, which is ruled by Rahu, or the North Node of the moon. The number of degrees the moon has transited through a nakshatra will determine how much time is left in the initial cycle. Thus if the moon were in the final degree of the constellation, the initial cycle will begin in the last section of the cycle. (Software is available for rapid computer calculation of these cycles--see references below.)
Within major cycles are sub-periods or sub-cycles that also unfold in a set sequential pattern. The sub-cycle begins with planet ruling the major cycle and then continues in sequence. For example, the current Saturn period for stocks started with a Saturn/Saturn period in 1998, and continued with a Saturn/Mercury period in August 2001 followed by a Saturn/Ketu period in 2004, etc. The major Saturn cycle will finish in 2017 and then the U.S. stock market will go into a Mercury major period. In order to properly use the Indian time cycles and their smaller periods, one must have the exact time of the start of the first future's contract of a commodity. Each minute that one is off can lead to changing the prediction low or high by about 4 days. O'Non and Remnick illustrate the importance of the exact time using an analogy from physics:
To launch a rocket ship to the moon, knowledge of the precise angle, time, and location of the launching on earth are necessary. If it is launched at a slightly different time and angle, it will miss by 30,000 to 40,000 miles.
I have had to travel to the archives of the Chicago Board of Trade and other major exchanges to verify the first tick starting time and have collected an almost complete set of dates and times that I make available to participants in my advanced seminars or through my home study course on Vedic Financial Astrology (see references below). The challenge is that some of this data is very hard to get or was destroyed as was the case for wheat and corn data due to the Chicago fire and New York exchanges merging and not keeping good data. It takes time to rectify the charts and make them useful. The easiest way to understand the effects of a period is too look at past examples. Because we have 215 year of data on the U.S. stock market, and the complete unfoldment of a series of cycles is 120 years, we can go back to the period between 1878 and 1897 to study past analogues.
Application of the Indian Cycles to the US Stock Market
What is extraordinarily exciting about using dashas or Indian time cycles for market prediction is that it allows one to know the exact date that cycles change, to label them, and to quantify whether they are strong ups, minor ups, strong downs, or sideways. If one studies the 215 year history of the stock market, and is familiar with the rules for predicting and interpreting the Indian dasha or time cycle system, the mysterious cycles which seem to govern stocks would no longer be a mystery. For example, by no accident the bull market that began in 1982 coincided with the beginning of a 16-year Jupiter period, which began in late August. In general then, this system predicted the stock market would continue to expand until 1998, since Jupiter is a ""bullish"" planet and is well placed in the natal chart of the May 17, 1792 stock market chart. Rises and falls within the major cycles are explained by sub-periods, or antardasas. These sub-periods can either amplify or diminish the strength of the major period.
Within this 16-year period, the transits of Jupiter, its retrogradation and aspects to it are especially influential since Jupiter assumes the second most important role in the NYSE chart next to the moon, the chart lord. The Jupiter period ended in 1998, when a 19-year Saturn period assumed the second-most important role.
A recent study I did of the NYSE will explain how the dashas can be of use to spot short- term and intermediate declines or rises. Certain combinations lead to very predictable outcomes. To get daily timing on the stock market, one needs examine four or five levels of dashas, or cycles, to break the larger 20- and 2-3-year periods down into 20- and 3-4- day periods. Amazingly, the cyclical combinations that are negative on the larger scale level will often prove negative on the smaller scale.
A comparison of the October-February 1987-88 fourth level cycles (Jupiter/Mercury/Venus/Rahu etc.) with the third level periods in 1901-1904 (Mercury/Venus/Rahu) reveals that the major lows coincide with a repetition of particular combinations. This principle can also be extended to sections of other cycles in other years. For example, note the following:
Venus/Rahu/Saturn: (8-28-29 to 2-17-30) Declined from high of 372.06 on 9-03-29 to a low of 230.07 on 10-29-29. Jupiter/Mercury/Venus/Rahu/Saturn (Dec 4, 1987). Signaled another major low and decline to 1747 on the Dow after being as high as 2051 following the crash.
Jupiter/Mercury/Venus/Venus/Rahu (October 19, 1987) The third level Venus period did contribute to the direction of the decline in combination with a number of bearish oppositions, the return to an eclipsed constellation, and the sidereal transit of Uranus into Sagittarius. This one example indicates how the Venus/Rahu combination can be used to signal a sharp decline if it occurs in a particular combination.
This particular Venus/Rahu combination is only one of many combinations that one can label, and historically study. Other combinations are bullish, such as when the sequence unfolds from a Sun period into a Moon period and onto a Mars period. For example, the stock market's last major Moon Period went from August 1947-August 1957. During that time the Dow went from 179.74 to 492.32, a gain of over 200%. During smaller moon cycles within larger periods, such as the Mars/Moon period from Jan 21, 1964 to August 21, 1964 the market climbed from 776 to 838. And in the Rahu/Moon period from Jan 31, 1980 to July 31, 1981, the Dow climbed from 875 to 935. Even on the third level we can usually count on a rally during a moon period, such as the Jupiter/Mercury/Moon period from April 4, 1988 to June 13, 1988. We saw a surprise rally that began in late May and took the Dow from 2000 at the beginning of the period to almost 2200 by the end of the period.
From the above examples, one can see the value of being able to label and quantify the cycles in order to predict the magnitude of the move. As many cycle analysts know, one can often find major cycle lows and entry point but still not have any idea how large the move is going to be. The Indian time cycle analysis is a genuine solution to forecasting because it can predict the future, not just suggest it from the past.
Future of the US Stock Market Based on Indian Cycles into 2017
A 19-year lackluster Saturn period in 1998-2017 does not have the bullish energy that we have seen in the Jupiter Period from 1982-1998. Consequently, the market will not go straight up nor will it go straight down--and it turns out that Venus periods have the biggest percentage losses. As we saw in the 18 year Rahu period from August 1964 to August 1982, the market can go net sideways in relatively narrow price bands over many years.
There is an approximate high into June 9, 2007 followed by a sharp decline into the week of Oct. 22, 2007 with a lower low due into about the third week of April 2008. We are still watching patterns to translate this into price movement.
There appears to be a recovery rally into late May 2010, then a sharp fall into Dec. 2010, a recovery toward the highs into Jan. 2013 and a major decline into 2013 that is one of the lowest points in the whole period, a recovery into August 2015 and then a sharp fall into the end of the period, which makes new lows into April 2017. Hence the periods to be long stocks appear to be Feb.-June 2007; April 2008 to May 2010 and Dec. 2010 to Jan. 2013. We adjust these directional indicators using Elliott Wave pattern analysis to predict price. There appears enough upward momentum in the current cycle to take stocks much higher into the June 2007 cycle high.
Gann reminded us that we have to take everything we know and apply it to our forecasts. Indian Time cycles are one tool. In our newsletter, we combine it with Elliott wave pattern analysis, minor astrological timing from planetary aspects, and five other proprietary cyclical techniques as well as technical analysis.
Back in 1990 and 1994, when everyone was bearish about stocks, we predicted DOW prices well over 7000 into 1998-2000 based on our dasha cycle models.
Conclusion
Anyone attempting to uncover the mysterious laws of nature that underlie the commodity and stock markets will be rewarded and intrigued by the depths of Indian astrology. The study of Indian astrology leads not only to knowledge of economic laws, but ultimately to knowledge of the self. Understanding Indian cycles and transits is as important for trading successfully as a good timing system. A combination of the two is astoundingly useful and leads to a profound appreciation of the order of natural law. While no astrological system should be used 100% to time market entries and exits, using both astrological and technical signals can certainly stack the odds in one's favor."
