MMA WEEKLY - Financial Astrology commentary, Financial Market Analyst and Market Timer

The printed version of Forecast 2014 will be translated into several different languages again this year as follows :

- Chinese Dutch Deutsch Japanese Russian Spanish Italiano

Each of these will also offer the English version of Forecast 2014, as will our Chinese distributor : "Your work is essential to anyone who is serious in this field. I can't thank you enough for it".

Go to the sheet for Downloading the video for the Ultimate book on stock market timing.

The Market Week in Review :

That was one bizarre Mercury retrograde period that just ended (March 12-April 4) !.

Perhaps it was complicated by the simultaneous presence of Mars retrograde (January 23-April 14), or the Sun's translation to the approaching Uranus-Pluto waxing square (March 24-29).

Whatever it was, Gold and Silver didn't like it, as both metals fell sharply to their lowest level in three months. On March 27, a critical reversal date that was the midpoint of the Sun's translation to Uranus and Pluto, June Gold was testing 1700. One week later, as Mercury turned direct on April 4, it was down to 1613. On April 3, May Silver was trading as high as 3329.50. The very next day (April 4 again), it was down to 3098 ! A special update on Gold and Silver will be featured in the MMA Cycles Report, to be issued early this week. A special alert was emailed on April 4 to subscribers of all MMA reports. Why ? Because yet another special situation is arising, according to principles of cycles analysis, geocosmic studies, and chart patterns, which are all coming together, similar to what was present in late September and late December when we issued our last two special reports.

Although this recent Mercury retrograde was a very difficult period for precious metals, it was not the same for all other commodities and stocks. Soybean prices, for instance, have been straight up from January 12 through April 3, which covers most of the Mars retrograde period. USA stock indices, on the other hand, traded in a rather narrow price range. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, for example traded between 13,000 and 13,300 for the past few weeks, which was precisely what was anticipated based on the Mercury retrograde period, and led to five consecutive and profitable short-term trades for our daily subscribers since being stopped out of long-term short positions on March 13. The profits from those five trades between March 16 and April 4 were triple the amount of loss incurred from being short February 7-March 13. But the important learning point here was that stock indices traded back and forth every 1-4 days, amidst conflicting political and economic signals given out during the entire Mercury retrograde period. This is just another reason why the market timing opportunities afforded by Financial Astrology really do provide an edge for traders when interpreted and used correctly.

Now that Mercury retrograde is over, we face the prospect of equity prices falling below the 13,000 support level in the DJIA. The U.S. stock market was closed on Friday, April 6, in observance of "Good Friday". However, the futures markets were open for a short time following the release of the Labor Department's Payroll and Unemployment numbers for March. Although unemployment dipped from 8.3 to 8.2%, the rise in new payrolls only increased by about 120,000, which was far below expectations of 200,000 new openings (it was full moon, so why did they "expect" anything ?). Equity futures dropped hard, with the DJIA futures down 131 points from the prior day's close. Stocks may open up the week with a "gap down", which means prices may open below the entire trading range of this past week. If that gap unfolds and is not filled, it becomes a very bearish indicator. If it is filled by the closing bell, it becomes more of a bullish indicator.

Short-Term Geocosmics :

Mercury retrograded is over (thank goodness), but Mars remains retrograde for one more week. It goes direct on April 14. That is not the only planet changing direction this week. Pluto begins its 5-month retrograde motion on Tuesday, April 10. Therefore we are now entering a two-week period that will highlight the principles of Mars and Pluto, which is not exactly a walk in the park - unless you account for the stalkers hiding behind the trees and bushes. Mars is the principle of assertion when positive, aggression and attack when negative. But the strategy of attack is not always apparent to those who are targeted. Pluto has a dubious distinction of hiding the motives of Mars until the victim is entirely circled and entrapped. This is a contest, or combat, and the goal is not to affect a win-win result. The winner is the last person standing. However, with Mars still retrograde, such a blatant attack will usually boomerang, and with Neptune now in Pisces, the collective is sympathetic to the victim and likely rejects the aggressor. Which makes you wonder : what was President Obama thinking of last week when he "warned" the Supreme Court ahead of its decision on the constitutionality of Obamacare ?. In typical Mercury retrograde fashion, he backpedalled from that threat. But did it hurt him, which would be typical of aggressive behavior committed under Mars retrograde ?.

In classical astrology, Mars rules both Aries and Scorpio, and in modern astrology, Pluto is given rulership over Scorpio. Some astrologers think Pluto's rulership should be over Aries based on the idea that every sign after the Sun is ruled by planets in order of their closeness to the Sun (Mercury rules Virgo, Venus rules Libra, Mars rules Scorpio, Jupiter rules Sagittarius, and Saturn rules Capricorn). The other half of the sign rulerships start with the Moon ruling Cancer, and then every planet rules the previous sign according to its closeness to the Sun. Hence Mercury rules Gemini, Venus rules Taurus, and then we start with the unseen planets from furthest out to inward, so that Pluto rules Aries, Neptune rules Pisces, and Uranus rules Aquarius. Either way, Mars and Pluto will be highlighted this week and next, and even more so because the Sun is in Aries. This may not tell us much about the market climate next week as it does about the political and economic climate. Politically, we already see the front runners for the USA Presidential election starting to attack one another, and economically we see the further explosion of debt rocking the Euro zone, which is of course a Plutonian principle. The escalation of debt and the lack of control of spending will be front and center on the minds of investors next week. It doesn't help that Venus is making a T-square to the Mars-Neptune opposition, with Mercury stationary in Pisces. This means you can't believe what you hear or read. Truth becomes a rare commodity during these times. Fear-mongering is probably more in vogue. As traders, we must be vigilant of false rumors.

Longer Term Thoughts :

Last week's Longer-Term Thoughts" ended with this statement: "We are about to enter a reality of parallel universes, one ruled by grievances and the other by miracles. It will be interesting to see which the leaders of our governments will choose. It will be just as interesting to see which we will choose in our own individual lives".

It is election season (the "primaries") in the United States, and it is very apparent to everyone in the U.S.A. that this 2012 election will not be about miracles. The candidates are all about grievances - Uranus in Aries, square Pluto in Capricorn, the granddaddy of all grievances. Especially Pluto in Capricorn, for Pluto wants to reform things - anything - and Capricorn is both skeptical and critical of the way government, business, and banking are all conducted. Capricorn is not a sign for cheerleaders, nor is Pluto a planet that values cheerleading and "pep talks"... It will be a hard time to rally the base, regardless of what party you belong to. People demand the truth under Pluto in Capricorn, and if you covered it up, it becomes revealed and you have to account for what you tried to hide - and why.

So the question on the minds of a lot of Americans (and others in the world too) is : who is going to win the USA Presidential Election of 2012 ? I stated early on that I believed Barack Obama would be re-elected. I also stated that this is my preliminary forecast, and I reserve the right to change this forecast anytime prior to mid-September. But it is time to begin analyzing the mundane astrological factors that go into making a forecast on any election.

My preliminary forecast for an Obama re-election is based on one simple observation : the heavy assault on the USA chart by the transiting Uranus-Pluto square (2012-2015) is matched by the heavy assault of transiting aspects Chiron conjunct Neptune) forming a T-square to the Moon-Pluto square in the natal chart of Barack Obama (born August 4, 1961, 7:24 PM, Honolulu, HI according to his web site). My view therefore was that he would be re-elected, along with a Republican-controlled Congress, and an initiative to impeach him by 2014 would be undertaken by Congress, similar to what happened to President Bill Clinton. Only this time it might succeed.

But with astrology, there are always a myriad of possibilities in which planetary dynamics may actually unfold. The outcome is never certain in terms of specifics. It is like a puzzle, and the astrologer has to fit the pieces of the puzzle properly together in order to get the correct outcome. Let's take for instance the Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn that will be in force during the November 4, 2012 election. Right away, a Mundane Astrologer could make a case that this signature alone indicates an upset, a changing of the guard, which means Obama is not re-elected, and possibly by a very wide margin. Whenever Uranus is involved to Saturn or beyond in a hard aspect at the time of an election or sporting event, there is the likelihood of an upset and a change of guard. That is what happened in November 2008 when Obama won. It was a changing of the guard, and something happened that had never happened before in an American presidential election. That's Uranus. It changes the status quo, it upsets the tradition and the history against all expectations, and it oftentimes represents the "first" of some thing - in this case, the election of the first African-American to the highest office in the country. But it was more than that too. It represented a fundamental change against the entire history of the United States governance.

Uranus is present again. Does it mean another radical change in the direction of the United States government ? Or does it represent a changing of the guard, of the party in power ? And is the party that really holds the power represented more by the office of President, or the composition of Congress ?.

I used to think that the election was for the Republicans to take. Only their unwinnable and historic strategies of focusing upon unpopular social issues instead of economic ones would lose it for them. Sure enough, they embarked upon that predictable losing path, so now it is Obama's race to lose. And sure enough, I believe he made giant steps in that direction last week with his Mars-Pluto threats to the Supreme Court. To me, it appears to be a race in which the majority of voters will be voting against a candidate (or a party) - and not for a candidate - and the winner will be the one least despised. And this too would be so typical of Uranus square Pluto, which has the attitude of "I don't know who or what I want, but I sure as hell know who or what I don't want!" The end result may not be so much an election victory, as a precursor to an impeachment. Unless, of course, the decision to act upon grievance is instead transformed to work towards creating a miracle. In this writer's mind, that would be a movement towards finding common ground for unity instead of division, for realistic solutions rather than blame. It would be a movement towards the realization of the peaceful principles of Neptune in Pisces, instead of the polarization of the war-like and destructive reactionary qualities of Uranus in Aries square Pluto.

We have a choice. We always have a choice. And those choices will determine the outcome. It just that sometimes it seems our free will is exercised only to choose the inevitable.

To be continued... (next week)

Announcements :

!!! We have now added the Gold (GLD) and Silver (SLV) exchange traded funds (ETFs) to the markets we now analyze in our daily, weekly, and monthly subscription reports. We do this because so many subscribers now use our reports to trade ETF's rather than future contacts. The initial feedback has been very positive, so we will now make this part of the each report.

The Special Offer Now in Effect : We will now offer a free copy of the Forecast 2012 Book (printed copy) to any purchasers of the following subscription reports : 1 year of any MMA Cycles Report or any length subscription to an MMA Weekly or Daily report. The book is free to those who place such an order, but normal postage rates will apply to send the book. This special offer is not advertised on our website at this time, so if ordering do the following : order the subscription report of your choice, and then during the payment process, write in (under comments), "Please include free copy of Forecast 2012 Book". Or, call Amber at 1-248-626-3034 or email her.

We are down to the last couple of DVD's of the "Forecast 2012" webcast, which went extremely well. Perhaps it was our best webcast ever, according to feedback received. The cost for one of the remaining copies is $59.95 plus postage. To order go to our home page and scroll down to the announcement. For those ordering CD's, a PDF file of the charts will be emailed along with the order. "I just wanted to say that Ray's presentation was EXCELLENT! Great presentation and the WEBINAR was outstanding. Once again...THANK YOU !" Matt M., trader, Boulder, CO. on making reservations.

NEW! Now available Mini-Congress 'Outlook for 2012' on CD !!! Recordings of the congress "Outlook for 2012", held January 21, 2012 in Amsterdam, are now available on CD, with audio and PDFs of PowerPoint slides. All lectures are spoken in English.
The following presentations are included on this CD :

1) 2012 End Time of Dawning by Irma Schogt (20 minutes) ;

2) Happy New Year by Drs. Karen Hamaker-Zondag (20 minutes , regarding ECB and Federal Reserve Board) ;

3) 2012 = The Center of the Storm by Antonia Langsdorf (20 minutes, regarding Mayan calendar and astrology);

4) Forecast for 2012 by Raymond Merriman (1 hour).

Total length 2 hours, with PowerPoint slides sent online in a PDF document. Cost is $55.00 plus postage. Please go there, or www.mmacycles.com for ordering info.

Our new 2013 MMA Catalogue of products and services is now out!!! You can download it in PDF. The ordering page is the last page of the catalogue. This is especially useful for those outside of the USA, since we do not mail these out by mail unless requested.

If you are an active short-term trader, or even if you are an investor who likes to keep up with our current thoughts on financial markets, you may be interested in our Weekly or even Daily Market reports with short-term trading recommendations, (see a sample there, of the weekly). It is the only way I keep in touch with traders on a daily or even weekly basis, as I no longer offer personal consultations. These reports give in-depth analysis of the DJIA, S&P and NASDAQ futures, Euro currency (cash and futures), Swiss Franc, Dollar/Yen cash and Yen futures, Euro-Yen cash, T-Notes, Soybeans, Crude Oil, Gold and Silver. The daily reports cover all stock indices listed above, as well as futures in Euro, T-Notes, Soybeans, Gold and Silver. Both reports provide trading strategies and recommendations for position traders as well as for shorter-term aggressive traders. Subscription to the daily report also includes the weekly report.
If you want more information call our offices at 1-248-626-3034.
These reports are extremely valuable to those who trade ETF's (Exchange Traded Funds). In the words of one of our subscribers :"I am really pleased with your recommendations through the Daily and Weekly Trade Recommendations. I have used them to trade gold and silver stocks in my IRA. In the last eight years I increased my account from $60,000 to $712,000. Thanks for your excellent publications". - Bryden C., Small Business Owner, Illinois.

The Ultimate Book on Stock Market Timing, Volume 5 : Price Objectives and Technical Analysis is out !. The comments and reviews are starting to come in, and we will post them here over the next few weeks".I am a long time Merriman Market Analysis Newsletter reader. It has never ceased to amaze me how accurate those levels are given in the newsletter. I often wonder how Ray calculates those levels. By setting up my trades using those levels together with his timing methodology, I have profited greatly. I sincerely feel that Volume 5 of the series finally gives the whole investment community the full story about Ray's lifetime work and the complete description of his financial astrology methodology. It will be a great treasure to all serious market participants". Kenneth Laio, Trader and Chief Technology Officer, Sequoia Media Inc., Beijing, China.
It took two years to write this one, which is par for each of the five books of this series that started in 1997. That was around the time I decided I wanted to"tap into the soul of the stock market", like there is such a thing. Turns out there is, in my opinion. But it depends on how you interpret"soul". If you accept that it is a connection between the observable and the intuitive, that patterns do exist and like oracles, they oftentimes do reveal the future, then it exists. This is a book describing the tools that serious traders that I know use. I use them. Many of my subscribers use them, although not that many know how I calculate price targets to go along with market timing. This book identifies the formulas I personally use to calculate price targets, and the trading plans I find that work using these market timing and technical indicators. This book is packed with powerful tools (signals), and if you take the time to learn these tools properly, your chances of being a successful trader will increase tremendously, IMHO. The book is 300 pages, printed in perfect bind format, gloss cover, 8-1/2" x 11" size. The retail price of this new book is $144.00. The publication of Volume 5 will complete the project that started in 1996, and covered approximately 1600 pages of studies and strategies for all types of traders and investors, using our market timing methods. In all, this is a complete and unified approach to analyzing (and trading) financial markets, and especially stock markets. If you are interested in this unique and integrated methodology for analyzing and forecasting stock indices, you can save big bucks by ordering all five volumes, or choice of any four now, or just go to www.mmacycles.com and scroll down to the announcement. If ordering all five volumes, you will save $99.00 !.
For more information on this book, go to YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnplAS5m2AI, describing this new book. It is"the missing link". You may want to check this video out, as it contains some interesting long-term tips. You can also download that video there and read more comments.

The monthly MMA Cycles report and its companion MMA Japanese Cycles and MMA European Cycles reports will come out this week, Monday and Tuesday, via posting on our web site, or attachment via direct emails, for subscribers.
- This report covers our long term analysis of the stock market (DJIA and S&P futures), Gold, Silver, T-Notes, Euro and Swiss Franc currencies, grains and crude oil. It also provides the list of geocosmic and solar-lunar reversal zones for the 1-2 months. This report comes out Monday night to subscribers.
- The MMA Japanese Markets Cycles report covers the Nikkei, JGB Bonds, and the Dollar-Yen.
- The new MMA Europe Cycles report covers the German DAX, Swiss SMI, and Netherlands AEX stock indices, each in english only and will be available on Wednesday.
For subscription information, please go to our web site, or call us at 1-248-626-3034. If you are not a subscriber, you can check this service out on a 2-month trial basis for only $50.00.

Upcoming Events :

April 19 and 21, Boulder, Colorado "Forecast 2012" with Raymond Merriman, plus a workshop on "Financial Market Timing", focusing on equities and precious metals. Sponsored by ROMA. For more information and registration, contact dralagifts@msn.com or call 303-641-6838 or 303-604-2777. Once again, a private meeting for MMA subscribers will follow the workshop. Please let us know if you plan to attend the subscribers' meeting afterwards see at the top of that sheet.

April 27 : Scottsdale, AZ. Evening presentation on "Political, Economic and Financial Markets Outlook for 2012". The Uranus-Pluto Waxing Square." For details, contact programs@azastrologers.org, attention Arlene Houghland.

May 24-29, 2012 : UAC !!! The world's largest astrological conference. Taking place at the New Orleans Marriott Hotel. Go to www.uacastrology.com. There will be an awesome Financial Track, featuring some of the top Financial Astrologers and researchers in the world.

June 23 : Amsterdam : A special 5-hour workshop on "The Gold Market : Forecasting the Price of Gold and Silver" 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Victoria Hotel. Sponsored by Schogt Market Timing. This is a special workshop - only on precious metals !!! - you will not want to miss ! For further information, please go to for an exciting event in one of the world's most exciting cities at the most exciting time of the year: the first Uranus-Pluto square will be taking place then! This will be special.

August 2-6, 2012 : Midwest Astrology Conference, in Ann Arbor, MI, Holiday Inn. Pre-seminar workshop on Financial Astrology, Thursday, August 2, with Raymond Merriman. More details soon.

September 14-15 : San Diego, CA. Lecture on world economy and national election, and then a workshop on Financial Market Timing. More details shortly.

The MMA Catalogue of products and services for 2013 is now out!!! You can download it in PDF. The ordering page is the last page of the catalogue. This is especially useful for those outside of the USA, since we do not mail these out by mail unless requested.

We are pleased to announce that the Spanish publication of"Basic Principles of Geocosmic Studies for Financial Market Timing" has just been completed. For more information and ordering, please contact www.lecochonsideral.info/semana.html.

We also have our new CD available :"The Cardinal Climax 2008-2015 : Investment Opportunities and Dangers". This 75-minute CD outlines the most powerful geocosmic configuration of our lifetime : The Cardinal Climax of 2008-2015. This presentation examines the historical, long-term geocosmic signatures that are present 2008-2015, how they correlated to economic crises in the past, and how they will likely impact various financial markets and investment opportunities this time. In fact, many of the themes are already underway. Approximately 75 minutes, with PDF file of charts used: $25.00 plus postage.

I am oftentimes asked for recommendations of a money manager who uses my methods, since I won't manage other people's money. The thing is, almost all money managers I know use their own systems. But many subscribe to my services and share my thoughts about the future of the economy, various financial markets, and how to position one's portfolio along these lines. One money manager who subscribes to our services that I would suggest for those looking to structure a longer-term portfolio, such as a retirement account, is Duke O'Neill of Boulder, Colorado. He can be reached at dukeoneil1@gmail.com, or 1-(303) 545-5837. For those looking for a professional trader of commodity and futures contract might consider Ted Lee Fisher at ted.fisher@comcast.net. Ted is a legend in financial futures and has a seat on the CME. Both are very knowledgeable of the tools I use, of the way I am looking at markets, and yet each makes their own decisions as to exactly when to enter and exit any market. They will be more than happy to assist you.

To the above list, I would also like to recommend long-term MMA subscriber Erwin Brunner of Zurich, Switzerland. Mr. Brunner is the founder of BrunnerInvest AG. One of his five funds was awarded the"Best in-house fund of funds" in the world recently. Mr. Brunner is a former director of the Swiss Banking Corporation (today it is known as UBS), and a general director of Rothschild Bank in Zurich. As an independent wealth manager for high net worth individuals and institutional clients only, he places his clients into the funds of the best performing fund managers in the world, via his own research and experience. For high net worth readers interested in Mr. Brunner's funds, please contact him through www.brunnerinvest.ch.

The newly revised The Sun, The Moon, and Silver Book : Secrets of a Silver Trader, is now out. This is a book that you will use as a reference guide for...many, many years. It identifies all the key Sun-Moon combinations that have a higher (and lower) than expected probability of correlating with 4% or greater reversals in COMEX Silver. It also identifies"Big Range Days" - those days in which the range of Silver is most likely to be 3.5% or more of the price of Silver, which is a great tool for day traders. This book fulfills the dream of all traders: high probability winning trade possibilities, with minimal market exposure. It is that"extra edge". And Silver is a great market to trade now. The cost is $125.00. For ordering on line.

Disclaimer and statement of purpose : The purpose of this column is not to predict the future movement of various financial markets. However, that is the purpose of the MMA (Merriman Market Analyst) subscription services. This column is not a subscription service. It is a free service, except in those cases where a fee may be assessed to cover the cost of translating this column from English into a non-English language. This weekly report is written with the intent to educate the reader on the relationship between astrological factors and collective human activities as they are happening. In this regard, this report will oftentimes report what happened in various stock and financial markets throughout the world in the past week, and discuss that movement in light of the geocosmic signatures that were in effect. It will then identify the geocosmic factors that will be in effect in the next week, or even month, or even years, and the author’s understanding of how these signatures will likely affect human activity in the times to come. The author (Merriman) will do this from a perspective of a cycle’s analyst looking at the military, political, economic, and even financial markets of the world. It is possible that some forecasts will be made based on these factors. However, the primary goal is to both educate and alert the reader as to the psychological climate we are in, from an astrological perspective. The hope is that it will help the reader understand these psychological dynamics that underlie (or coincide with) the news events and hence financial markets of the day.

No guarantee as to the accuracy of this report is being made here. Any decisions in financial markets are solely the responsibility of the reader, and neither the author nor the publishers assume any responsibility at all for those individual decisions. Reader should understand that futures and options trading are considered high risk.

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