Financial astrology (also known as business astrology, economic astrology, and/or astro-economics) is a
pseudoscientific practice of relating the movements of celestial bodies to events in
financial market
A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial market ...
s. The use of
astrology
Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...
in any context is not
empirically based and its use in predicting financial markets is at plain odds with standard
economic
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
and
financial theory
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...
.
As with astrology in general, predictions are vague and hard dates are rarely given. Critics have pointed out that some astrological events that have been used in predictions occur so rarely that they may have never happened before within a human lifetime, thus having no precedent on which to predict results.
History
In 1992, 1994, and 2008, a magazine by the name of ''Wall Street Forecaster'' was named as one of the top forecasters on Wall Street, as the superstition was being leaned on for luck.
It was also rated the second best performing forecaster in 2002.
It was reported that some clients asked for their copies to be delivered in 'brown paper' to avoid mockery . As of 2001, the Astro fund trading company, which handled $3.5-5 million worth of investor assets, claimed 10-15% of fund managers were using their service or a similar company. The majority of the market demand for this service has come from the US and Japan respectively.
In 2000,
Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Tele ...
was host to a weekly show dedicated to financial astrology.
The 2000 financial crash led to a surge in companies and investment bankers using the services of financial astrologers.
Criticism
Large financial firms tend to ignore financial astrology.
The practice was used by
Goldman Sachs in a paper released in 1999, focusing specifically on the correlation between eclipses and the state of the financial market at that time. Though floated as an idea by the company at the time, analysis showed that random data produced similar results.
See also
*
Calendar effect
A calendar effect (or calendar anomaly) is any market anomaly, different behaviour of stock markets, or economic effect which appears to be related to the calendar, such as the day of the week, time of the month, time of the year, time within the ...
References
{{reflist, 2
Divination
Astrology by type
Financial markets