Review and Preview

    Last weekend’s workshop on “Basic Principles of Geocosmic Studies for Financial Market Timing – How to Read an Ephemeris,”    was a hit. Over 20 people were present on site and another 40+ on line from all over the world. The evaluations turned in were extremely positive, and all but three people who took the exam that followed the workshop passed it. They are now ready for MMA’s Market Timing Academy, our two-year training program on MMA’s methodology, which will begin the weekend of April 6-8, 2013, and follow in segments of two months, with a six-month break from October 2013-April 2014. Of course, not all of the students of last weekend’s pre-training workshop will take this comprehensive course, and some others may enroll along the way who will take this workshop and exam via DVD. The DVD and workbook from the workshop will be ready in about two weeks (see “Announcements”).

    But perhaps the finest moment of last weekend for me was when my son Sean – who was present – was asked his opinion about last Sunday’s Detroit Lions – San Francisco 49er’s football game. You see, Sean is a budding sports writer for Yahoo.com and the Big Ten Network. He is 26 years old and knows sports as well as anyone. He predicted San Francisco would win by about 7 points, and it would be a low scoring game with neither team getting more than 30 points. The final score that day? San Francisco 27, Detroit 19. I think I might soon retire and speculate on his predictions!

    And now to the markets of last week, as we underwent the second of the seven Uranus-Pluto waxing squares (June 24, 2012-March 17, 2015) on Wednesday, September 19. That day turned out to be an important multi-month high in several Asian and Pacific Rim markets, including Australia’s All Ordinaries. Japan’s Nikkei, and the Hang Seng of Hong Kong. However it was not a yearly high in any, except in India where the NIFTY soared to 5652 on Monday, September 17. Still, that was not a 4-year cycle high. It was below the 6335 high of November 12, 2010. But in China, the situation was reversed and worse. The Chinese Shanghai Index fell to 2018 on Friday, September 21, its lowest level since February 2009.

    European market also did quite well last week, especially in the German DAX and Zurich SMI, as both rallied to new yearly highs on Friday. But new yearly highs were not matched in the London FTSE or Amsterdam AEX indices, or even Moscow’s MICEX index. And in no case did one of these indices take out their 4-year cycle high attained in 2011.

    Which brings us to the Americas, and even there we see a division between north and south. The Bovespa of Brazil and Merval of Argentina fell way short of their yearly highs and certainly well off their all-time highs of November 2010-January 2011. Which now brings us to the United States, where everyone laments the poor economy but celebrates the soaring stock market. Here – and only here in the good ole USA – are stock markets making new 4-year cycle highs. In the case of the NASDAQ Composite, it recorded its highest price since November 2000. But there is a catch here too. The DJIA attained a new 4-year high last Friday, September 14, at 13,653, but fell slightly short of that mark with a high of 13,647 on Friday, September 14. But the Composite went to 3196 on Friday, September 21, just edging out a new 11-year high above 3195 mark that had been attained the prior Friday, September 14. So we have this phenomenon appearing all over the world known as “intermarket bearish divergence.”  But I don’t think it is quite over – not until the Fed accomplishes its mission of a new all-time high in the DJIA before the election. In fact, if that happens in October 2012, it will create a perfect “Lorusso 5-point reversal” signature, with a slew of Fibonacci time ratios, based on the recent studies of noted market technician Rick Lorusso. We will have to see if we can get Rick to make a presentation on his stellar market calls at our first MMTA course in April 2013, which will introduce some of the more technical and cycle studies that we use here at MMA.

    And what about Gold and Silver? Both soared to their highest levels since February, with Gold touching 1790 and Silver 3526. To think that less than 3 months ago, Silver was testing 2600 and Gold below 1550.

Best Trades of the Past Week

    For this section of the column, we will refer to our monthly (and even weekly) MMA Cycles Report pertaining to Gold and Silver. This month’s MMA Cycle Report (just issued this past week) stated, “Traders are long Gold per last issue’s advice to ‘… adopt bullish short-term strategies for Gold and Silver as we approach Mars entering Scorpio. That is, look to buy Gold around 1600 or lower with a stop-loss on a close under 1570, or 3% below the low of August 2-23, and Silver at 2620-2680 with a stop-loss on a close under 2610, with the idea of a 9% rally or higher into September 12-October 5. It is possible those lows already happened August 2.’ Now we would advise all traders to lock in profits on at least half of these positions… Aggressive traders may look to capture profits on all positions now... We look for the top to be in by October 8.” As subscribers know, we have issued special reports right at the lows of September 26, December 29, and May 15 – all within hours of the actual lows around 1530 – and each buy recommendation in those special reports was followed by 250+ points moves to the upside in Gold within the next few weeks. When people inquire as to what our best market has been for analysis and trading, we have to say that for this past year (and even the past several years), it has been Gold and Silver.

Short-Term Geocosmics

    Mars is still in Scorpio through October 6, so the behind-the-scenes political and military plotting continues. But for precious metals, it also means the high of the past couple of months may be near – or at least the first leg of a new bull market in each may be near.

    There is an important full moon coming up on September 29, and it will form a grand square to the Uranus-Pluto waxing square, all in cardinal signs (action). This is a powerful signature that sometimes coincides with earthquakes, volcano eruptions, electrical black-outs, high winds, and huge tidal waves within one week. If not at the full moon, these types of events can be touched off at the quarter moon phases of one week before or after. These signatures involve Uranus, so they are abrupt, disruptive, and unpredictable as to their exact form and location. Perhaps it could be a terrorist act. In many cases these types of signatures correlate with very sharp declines in financial markets, but not always. There is a geocosmic signature related to Mars pointing to the possibility of a sharp stock market decline even this coming week. You never know exactly in what sectors of human activity these aspects will strike, if at all, for they are sudden and accompanied by surprise and usually shock (or excitement). So consider this more of an alert than a hard prediction. In fact, I don’t really enjoy the business of prediction. But as a market timer, it’s hard to avoid, since market timing by its very nature is akin to a leading indicator, and the idea of a forecast of something that has an unusually high probability of occurrence– but not inevitability.

Longer-Term Thoughts:

    We will resume this part of the column next week. There is something I want to share with readers about the election – an astrological conspiracy theory. After all, Uranus is square Pluto, and that’s a rather heavy dynamic suggestive of a slew of conspiracy theories. And so I have one too based on 1) Mercury turning retrograde on Election Day, 2) Neptune turning direct 4 days later, 3) Mercury going direct on November 26 and 4). Mars conjunct Pluto in Capricorn (and Venus conjunct Saturn in Scorpio) on November 27. Now that I have given the astrologers the hints, they can probably figure out what my conspiracy theory is. And for everyone else, tune in next week for the dramatic tale that will surely make you wonder.