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

The printed version of Forecast 2014 has been 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.

Please note : The Forecast 2014 Book is out. The archive of the Forecast 2014 speech is available for viewing on line until January 14. A DVD and/or CD of the same speech will be available in the first week of January. It will also be available via download of a streaming video (no postage). The speech went extremely well. For more information on ordering these products.

The Market Week in Review :

Mars is finally changing directions this week, but oh my goodness... it is going out in classical Mars retrograde style with quite a fight between the bulls and the bears. It seems that every market has been flip-flopping every other day (and even every day in some cases) between first a bullish signal, then a bearish one. It's like a game of "Should I stay or should I go ? Does (s)he love me, or does (s)he not ?" Early in the week, everyone loved stocks, energy and treasuries. By the end of the week, they weren't so sure.

The rally at the beginning of the week soared to new all-time highs for many indices like the German DAX, London FTSE, and USA Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P. This coincided with the translation of Venus to the Grand Cardinal Cross still in effect between Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto. By Thursday, most (but not all) of these indices had fallen rather hard.

Treasuries rose sharply to their highest level since Mars turned retrograde on March 1. The June contract rose to its highest level in 6 months, and then started selling off on Friday under the Sagittarius Factor (Moon in Sagittarius), which is a normal pattern for T-Notes. Crude Oil made its weekly high on Wednesday then pulled back like stocks. Gold and Silver followed a similar path - weekly highs on Wednesday that looked like the start of new upside breakouts, only to fizzle and pull back into Friday. It was classic Mars retrograde - first we are going to blow you away, and then we go away. Big bad wolves acting like bulls, then bears. But that show is nearly over. Mars turns direct on May 20 and Jupiter will make its third and final trine aspect to Saturn on May 24. There is some semblance of order returning, slowly but surely, maybe erratically at first, but like the welcomed Sun starting to peek out from behind the clouds after a dark storm. It's all just energy that we must try to understand and work with. That's a lot of what astrology really is (thank you, Claudia, for that one).

Best Trades of the Past Week :

Our best trades of the week in the weekly subscription report were in Euro/Yen currency spread, which stated, "Position traders are flat and may sell short at 141.00 +/- .20, with a stop-loss on a close above 142.50. Aggressive traders... just missed the sell side and got the buy side, which is the wrong side to be. Look to exit these longs and go short at 140.75-141.00, with a stop-loss on a close above 141.75". Perfect. The high was 140.94 on Tuesday, May 13. By Thursday, it was trading below 139 and closed the week close to 139.

Our best trades in the daily reports were in stocks or currencies again. Thursday's report for the June NASDAQ e-mini contract advised, " Position traders are short with a stop-loss on a close above 3620 after covering 1/3 for a nice profit recently. Look to cover and still go long on a drop into 3563-3578, with a stop-loss on a close below 3540. Aggressive traders are also short and may do the same as position traders". The intraday low was 3540 and it closed the week at 3583. The same day posted the following for the June Euro contract, "Aggressive traders are flat and may sell short above 1.3728, with a stop-loss on a close above xxx". The high that day was 1.3731 and it closed the week at 1.3697.

For more information on the daily or weekly market reports, please follow this link, or call our offices at 1-248-626-3034.

Short-Term Geocosmics :

Mars will turn direct on May 20, thus ending a 6-month spree of consecutive retrograde periods by first Venus (December 21, 2013-January 31, 2014), then Mercury (February 6-28), and finally Mars (March 1-May 20). If it felt like your head was spinning amidst all of the changes taking place in the financial markets' landscape, take comfort in the fact that you were not alone. Confusion reigned (and still does) with financial market analysts everywhere. They really aren't certain what is driving world markets this year, and their outlooks have alternated from up to down and back again like a yo-yo. For some of that time, the focus was (and still is) on the economies of China and Europe. For others, it was (and still is) on the changing policies and "forward guidance" of central banks, which has resulted in the reversal of the Euro currency from its 2.5-year high recently. And for many others, it was (and still is) the rising geopolitical tensions between Russia, Europe and USA over the seemingly inevitable takeover/takedown of Ukraine. Some of these are bullish and others are bearish, and the dominant story keeps changing.

This confusion is related to the long bout of consecutive retrograde motions of the three personal planets. It was even more brutal this time than usual because it occurred during the cardinal T-square of Uranus-Pluto-Jupiter (August 2013-April 2014), which even became a Grand Cardinal Cross on April 20-25. When this happens (consecutive retrograde motions of personal planets), the investment world has a difficult time getting traction for any idea for very long. That is because consequences from actions initiated seldom result in the desired or anticipated outcomes. It usually means that decisions made or actions initiated are pre-mature ; they require more discussion and understanding of consequences before enacting to attain the desired result. Otherwise you just have to go back and do it all over again a better way - or suffer the consequences of poorly constructed decisions.

Thus, during the retrograde period, analysts reversed their collective belief that the Fed's tapering of its monthly treasury and securities purchases would result in higher interest rates on the long end, which would result in a stronger U.S. Dollar against other currencies, and a decline in commodity prices. Now they are nearly unanimous in the opposite belief - that long-term rates will decline, and the Dollar will fall, but they don't know what to think of commodities like Gold and Silver. But here is the point (to me) : this will all reverse back again to the original outlook in the next few weeks. Retrogrades are known to coincide with counter-trend moves. They interrupt the original trend and collective outlook But they don't end it permanently (although Uranus square Pluto does, will, and already has, to some extent).

The bottom-line : be prepared for a return of what was the collective investment outlook six months ago, even as those who have changed will resist changing back again. Flexibility has its limits in this Saturn profession... in any Saturn endeavor. But Uranus square Pluto will cure that, and that cosmic duo stays around for another year. They can run, but they can't hide.

Longer-Term Thoughts :

"It's all but a journalistic commandment : Thou shalt not have a vested interest in the story you're covering. Otherwise, a personal entanglement could color a reporter's neutrality or cloud public perceptions of fairness. An obvious area of concern : when a journalist's relatives or spouse is part of the news... So what to make of all the family ties between the news media and the Obama administration ? " - Paul Farhi, "Media, administration deal with conflicts," June 12, 2013, www.washingtonpost.com.

My longer-term thoughts of last week elicited a lot of email. Either you like it when I discuss personal experiences related to transiting planets to my own chart (which is not easy for one who has half of his natal planets in Scorpio and Capricorn). Or you - like me - were a bit stunned by the gap between how you thought the world viewed the USA and Russia, versus how many in the world really view this new cold war that just exploded under this Mars retrograde passage.

This gap became apparent to me during the past two weeks when I was in Europe and talked with several Europeans involved in banking, business, education, and the arts. I wanted to know how they viewed the recent Russian incursion into Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. I received a jolting wake-up call that was totally outside of my awareness, and I dare say, outside of the awareness of 99.9% of Americans. I mean, I always know that I don't know. But... how could I have missed this ? How could so many of us in the USA have missed this ? Well, that's easy to answer : the USA media, the source of most of our information.

So the question is : why is the USA media not reporting this ? Well, astrologically, the USA does have its natal Mercury in opposition to its natal Pluto, a possible signature of censorship and/or control of information by the media. That aspect will be touched off at the turn of the decade when Saturn and Pluto together transit the USA natal Pluto opposition to Mercury (interference with communications). The other explanation is a recent report which revealed that several (maybe 30 ?) top media outlets in the USA are like a revolving door to the White House. They work for the USA government and then they work for the media. They work for the media, and then they get a job within the administration, back and forth. The news you read or hear is according to the news you are given to read or hear by those with close ties to the White House. Not that this is anything new, but... it may be reaching a level where you don't know what is reality anymore, which I why I am ever more certain that I know that I don't know.

So let me share with one of the several letters I received from a colleague in China, who offers another startling insight in response to last week's column that I am certain very few in America will have read about anywhere else.

"I think you have an excellent "Long Term Thought" section in today's Weekly Review. I like to tell you that the emotion here in Asia especially China is the same as the Europeans described in your review. In China a few years back, people in general admired the US and its way of life. They have formed the so-called "Chinese Dream" after the "American Dream". But recently, I can feel strongly that the public starts to distrust the US.... Every time a US official visit to the region, some conflicts will be stirred up. The US foreign policy ... is pushing China harder and harder to form a much stronger alliance with Russia (although reluctantly at the beginning). These two countries are very much complements to each other. Russia has the natural resources and military technologies, China has the market and financial strength. The combined alliance will be extremely powerful and hard for US to handle. With China in its backing, Russia has no fear of any US economic sanction. China gains its natural gas, oil, missile defense system and the most advanced fighter jets...".

Is it unpatriotic to share these views of others in the world that see my homeland differently than we are massaged to believe ? Or is the Grand Cardinal Cross at 13 degrees of cardinal signs - on the USA Sun square Saturn - a wake-up call to all Americans as to what is happening in the USA and its standing in the world ? The Sun-Saturn symbolizes the USA's leadership and government. The Grand Cardinal Cross was there for only a week, but the Uranus-Pluto square (the strongest parts of that Cardinal Square) lasts from June 2012 through March 2015, and even beyond those time boundaries if one allows even a three-degree orb. This is an aspect of a potentially profound change in standing - except now, it doesn't seem like it is in a state of "potentially profound". It seems like it is manifesting as reality, and everyone knows it - except us.

Like I said before, I know that I don't know. I think that may be a lot less dangerous than those who don't know that they don't know, and think that they know.

To be continued (next week).

Announcements :

We are pleased to announce that very soon, we will be posting our weekly columns in India. MMA-India will be directed by MMTA Apprentice Nitin Bhandari, and will include subscription services to all of our reports, as well as availability of all of our books. We will keep our readers from India informed as progress is made on this new initiative.

MMA's weekly and daily reports have been extremely accurate and profitable over the past several weeks, especially in equity indices, crude oil, and precious metals. 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 Daily Market reports. It is the only way I keep in touch with traders on a daily or weekly basis. These weekly reports give in-depth analysis of the DJIA, S&P and NASDAQ futures, Euro currency (cash and futures), Dollar/Yen cash and Yen futures, Euro-Yen cash, T-Notes, Crude Oil, Soybeans, Gold and Silver. The daily reports cover all stock indices listed above, as well as futures in Euro, T-Notes, Gold and Silver, plus GLD and SLV (the Gold and Silver ETF's). 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. For more information, or call our offices at 1-248-626-3034. These reports are extremely valuable to those who trade ETF's (Exchange Traded Funds). And since early December, these reports have been extremely profitable. As subscriber and trader R.B. of Albuquerque, NM writes, "You have been on an incredible run for a while ; I have never seen anything like it". Well, when everything lines up just right...

Course 5 of the MMTA (Merriman Market Timing Academy) was a great success ! This course, titled "Trading and Investing Planning: Combining Market Timing Studies and Price Objective Calculations", was held March 24-27, 2014, in Troy, Michigan. This course focused on several topics. The first was the development of a weekly and daily trading plan, based on cycles, geocosmic signatures, and solar-lunar combinations. Real-time strategies took place every morning and at the end of the trading day. Then, longer-term market cycles, longer-term planetary cycles, and calculations of price objective targets for long-term cycle tops and bottoms, along with their patterns and sub-cycles were addressed. From there, the lessons moved into intermediate- and shorter-term price calculations. The DVD and LMS (on line version) of the course will be available at the end of April, via www.merrimanmta.com. The cost of this 4-day course is $3600.

MMTA Course 6 will take place June 2-5, 2014, also at the Michigan State University Management Education Center (MEC) in Troy, Michigan. This course will focus on short-term calculations of daily and weekly support/resistance, and trading plans to go with it. These plans will combine our knowledge of market timing tools, including cycles, geocosmic critical reversal dates, and solar-0lunar combinations. For more information, please call 1-248-626-3034, or visit the MMTA website.

The first year of MMTA (the Merriman Market Timing Academy) is now completed! The courses (all 4 together, or separately) are available via our LMS website-uploadable venue (no postage), or in DVD, to those who wish to become students of MMA's methodology. Each course comes with a full workbook (90-130 pages each). For a complete description of these courses - and those yet to come - please visit www.merrimanmta.com, or call 1-248-626-3034.

Our monthly MMA Cycles report and its companion MMA Japanese Cycles and MMA European Cycles reports went out last week. If you are subscriber to any these monthly reports and did not receive it, let us know at once via our email.
- 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.
Two-issue trial subscriptions are available for this service for $50.00, which includes the current issue and the next month's as well.
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.

Speaking of our weekly subscription reports, we now offer a new one titled : MMA Weekly Treasuries, Soybeans, and Crude Oil Report. This will be a 3-5 page report offering comments, analysis, forecasts, and trading strategy for next week's market activity in the U.S. 10-Year T-Notes (Treasuries), Soybeans, and Crude Oil futures only. List of support/resistance areas, trend indicator points, geocosmic and lunar reversal points for the week, cycles phasing, and recommended buy and sell strategies. The cost is $750/yr or $250/3 months. We will offer a one-month trial subscription for $50.00, available only until August 15, as part of our introduction to this new service. Subscriptions are delivered by downloadable postings on the MMA Website, which is entered via your personal password. It is also delivered via an email attachment to all subscribers over the weekend before the market opens.

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.

Upcoming Events :

June 2-5, 2014 : MMTA Course 6 : "Advanced Support-Resistance Calculations for Trading".

August 25-28, 2014 : MMTA Course 7 : "Combining Technical Studies, Cycles, and Critical Reversal Dates for Traders".

September 25-28, 2014 : The ISAR International Astrology Conference, Phoenix, AZ. This will be the "big one" next year with dozens of well-known international astrologers present ! Mark your calendars and plan to attend it. Information will soon be available at www.iasastrology.com.

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.

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 theBest 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 identifiesBig 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 thatextra 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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