One of the great teachers of the Art of Astrology, Linea Van Horn will be giving us the ‘nitty gritty’ on the often confusing Galactic Center, which,  in San Francisco, on January 12th, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. (continue reading…)

Please come join me for an astrological feast!!

International Astrology Day * San Francisco

March 19th in a celebration of Astrology

International Astrology Day (IAD) is an annual observance/holiday celebrated by astrologers and astrology enthusiasts. It is held on the spring equinox, the day the Sun enters Aries, which is the first sign of the Tropical  Zodiac, and has long been considered the astrological new year. In observance of IAD the Association For Astrological Networking (AFAN) co-ordinates astrological lectures and events around the world. (continue reading…)

Alistair Barr over at MarketWatch warns, today,  that emerging markets may be peaking.

Feb. 15, 2011, 2:55 p.m. EST

Emerging markets may be overheating: Citi CEO

Big banks may struggle to make 20% returns on equity, Pandit says

By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) – Emerging markets may be overheating and will have to increase capacity and control inflation, Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said Tuesday.

Pandit also said big banks may struggle to generate 20% returns on equity in the future, in a speech at the ISI Group 2011 conference in New York.

“Many of the emerging markets are operating at or near capacity and are therefore at risk of overheating – and must deal with the possible consequences of inflation,” he remarked.

Surging food prices show that “there are some countries where you’ve reached close to capacity,” Pandit said, without mentioning specific nations.

Still, the Citi (NYSE:C)  chief noted that this is happening because emerging markets are growing strongly. “Their challenge is to work out how to increase capacity. Central banks on the ground are doing a good job trying to handle this trade-off between growth and capacity.”

Citi has the most exposure to emerging markets of any big U.S. bank. Pandit said Tuesday he’s “comfortable” with the portfolio of loans the company has made in these countries. That’s partly because consumer leverage and corporate-lending penetration is still relatively low, he explained…” More:

http://tinyurl.com/467nh6p

Surely, with the lose monetary policy, we hear all the time, how ‘strong’ the dollar is against the Euro, and the currencies of other developed nations, but what we do not hear much about,  is how zerp (zero interest rates policy) has increased the currencies of emerging nations, especially those with large mining and mineral operations. For example, Australia’s dollar, today trades at 0.9964, pretty much, neck and neck,  with the US dollar.

There is no doubt that commodities have had an enormous run up in the past year. Oil is trading at 86 a barrel, and gold is off the roof in the 1300s. How long can a good thing last, is anybody’s guess, and so, since it’s a question, I am interested in. I feel passionately about markets. It is my business, to know, and it should be yours, too.  So I ask:

Are emerging markets about to hit the skids?

When we look at horary charts, the first thing we do is to look to the ASC. This gives the atmosphere of the question to us. Here we have the ‘quick’ and nimble Gemini, rising. This will a sort of lightness or flexibility to the atmosphere of the question. In other words, it’s a question sort of asked at the ‘spur of the moment’ and so it’s a casually asked question, much the sign, Gemini, which is comprised of two children. In the first house, we see the Dragon’s Tail at the last degree of Gemini. This could portend some downward movement, but at 29 degrees, it may be ‘down the road’ a bit.

The next thing we do in such a chart, is to examine the condition of the planet that governs, or has control of the sign rising on the eastern horizon. In this case, that planet is Mercury.  The first thing we notice is that Mercury  is of the same nature as the sign on that all important cusp, in other words, light and airy in nature because the sign rising, and its ruler,  Mercury are both in an air signs. Air brings a lot of ‘hope’ for the future, and as such, they tend to be bullish.

Mercury is up at the top of the chart. This portion of the chart is called the ‘price’ in ancient charts. So when we see Mercury heading towards the top of the chart. And we all know that old saying, ‘what goes up must come down.’ In this case, Mercury is about 5 degrees from the top. This may buy emerging markets a little time. However, Mercury is also heading straight into the molten bubbling rays of the sun. This is called, combustion. The Sun is just so much bigger and stronger than Mercury, that it doesn’t ake much imagination to figure out what happens, when this happens. In ancient think, this is the sign of trial by fire.  In the question at hand, the all powerful, Sun also rules the house of bottoms, that of the 4th.

What does this mean? Well, in  a nutshell, given Mercury’s upcoming peaking, then falling into the fiery arms of the Sun, not to mention, that depressing South Node in the 1st,  we may, indeed,  see emerging markets go down. But when ???

Well, in horary, angular planets stand for months. Since Mercury is within 5 degrees of the cusp of the 10th,  it may buy emerging markets a few months, but since Mercury is just leaving the antiscion of the parsfortuna, we have a pretty strong bet that the boom days, are over.

If you are interested in knowing what is in store for you in the coming year, ahead; come  join us for a panel discussion this coming Thursday, December 16, 2010. I must say, I am quite honored to be in such in royal company. I  will be surrounded by two of the most brilliant, Jessica Murray, and Jack Fertig (see about them, below!!)

Panel Discussion 2011 and Beyond

Panelists:
Jessica Murry, Jack Fertig, and Dorothy Kovach.

In our now-traditional finale to the year’s programs, three of the Bay Area’s top Geo-Political Astrologers will share their views of the year ahead.

Jack Fertig

has been studying Astrology since 1969 and practicing professionally in San Francisco since 1980. A long time astro-columnist in local papers, he has also written for a number of other journals and magazines, and now writes the internationally syndicated “Q-Scopes”. He teaches classes — including the Introduction to Geo-Political Astrology through the International Academy of Astrology and offers both personal and business consultation. His principle interest is in outer planet motions and their correlations to social and historical changes. He is a member of the International Society for Astrological Research, the National Council for Geo-Cosmic Research, and a founding member of the Association For Astrological Networking. Jack serves on the Steering Committee of AFAN and the San Franicsco Astrological Society.

http://www.starjack.com

to  We are sorry  to announce that David Crook will not be able to make it. 🙁

But Jessica Murray will!!

Is a full-time astrologer, with a passion for the sacred science. He enjoys working with clients, and the quiet study of mundane astrology. David received an MFA degree from the San Francisco Art Institute, and have actively studied Taoism, the I Ching, and astrology, for over the last 20 years.

David Crook’s blog: http://stellarinsights108.blogspot.com/

and me, 🙂

Dorothy J.  Kovach

a practicing astrologer, writer and timing expert based in Northern California. She acts as a consultant to both businesses and persons interested in finding the very best time to start projects for successful outcomes, such as launching new businesses, websites, surgery, weddings, etc. Her specialty is  horary astrology. Over a decade, ago, Dorothy decided to apply traditional to the markets. She called both the downturn in 2000, as well as the Lehman Brothers crash in September 2008. She has been writing the economic forecasts for Llewellyn Publications since 2001. She utilizes the very best of both ancient western and eastern traditional methods in her work.

Regular meetings cost $7 for members and $12 for non-members for the general public.

$2 discounts off meeting fees for:

• Students with a student ID card
• Senior citizens (age 65+),
• People experiencing their Uranus Return (born 1925 or earlier) with membership get in for free!

Meetings start promptly at 7:30 p.m.
Meeting location:

Fort Mason
Building C

more info:

http://www.sfastrologicalsociety.com/

See you there!!!

Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Coburn and Members of the Subcommittee:

Thank you for the invitation to appear before you today as you examine some of the causes and consequences of the financial crisis.

Today, the financial system is still fragile but it is largely stable. This stability is a result of decisive and necessary government action during the fall of 2008. Like other financial institutions, Goldman Sachs received an investment from the government as a part of its various efforts to fortify our markets and the economy during a very difficult time.

(continue reading…)

While most everybody in the media has been down playing the problems at Goldman Sachs, recently, big changes are coming up in their future. Why, one of the ways in which we look into the future of any given companies stock by a method known to astrologers as directing. After all just as people grow, so do charts. Companies have their ups and downs, and directing is one of the easiest way to see those fluctuations in fortune.

There are several different kinds of directions, the one most utilized in the western tradition is called ‘secondary progression.’ When we direct This method takes the planets and luminaries and projects them forward in the sign they are in symbolically. In general, this moves the planets forward (or backwards) in general by ‘ephemeris’ time, which is approximately one day in the ephemeris is equal to one year in the life of the company.

In the situation we have with Goldman Sachs, we have a company that has had vigorous growth since the stock went public in 1999. Moving the Goldman’s stock (GS) forward by secondary direction, we see that the Moon has just come to the same degree as the Sun. Whenever the Moon and the Sun are one in real life, we call a ‘new Moon.’ The reason we call it a ‘new’ Moon is because it is the start of the lunar month. If you watch what takes place at this time, all the old business from last month comes to an end, and brand new focus takes place. The first sighting of the New Moon was so important to the ancients that 1st century CE astrologer, Al-Biruni tells us that the ancient Jews who would send forth their swiftest warriors to the mountain peaks, where they were instructed to build a fire at the very first second that they saw the tiny crescent of the New Moon. This is because our script changes, every time that the Sun and Moon are one, every month.

Because the directed Moon moves so slowly, the coming together of the Sun and Moon is a rare event in a stock’s life, taking place but once every 27 years. When this happens, as it with GS, sweeping changes take place, which set the stage for almost the next decade.  Goldman is going to see heads roll because the coming together of Sun and Moon took place on the dreaded fixed star, Algol, who represents the severed head of the Medusa. It is an indication that it will be hard for GS to get away with the ABACUS scandal as easily as it was able to cover its bad bets back in 2008.

This coming together of the Moon and the Sun is all the more poignant because the sign Cancer is rising on the eastern horizon. This makes the Moon the landlord, so to speak, of the chart. We see the Moon in the main or natal chart is in the devil may care sign of Sagittarius. This sign has a great deal to do with gambling and taking risks of all kinds. This is not surprising given the nature of this company, which is known to create and bet on all kinds of financial instruments. There is nothing controversial about an investment bank taking risks. However, legal problems arise because in the case of GS, it appears that the government, bailed this company out, using taxpayer money to cover for bets that appear that the risk was not fully disclosed to the potential investor.

The investor is the person that the company sells the stock to. This would be the 7th house. Notice when the Moon is in the 6th house, it subverts the customer, because it stands behind the customer, like a predator in the house of self undoing to the potential investor.

With Capricorn on setting in the west, the people who are sold financial instruments will be represented by Saturn. Now, a real problem arises for any potential investor because when we look at the condition of their representative, we see that potential customers are at a great disadvantage because they are not getting the full picture about the risks that they are about to take on because their rep is only 6 degrees shy of the Sun. When the symbolic client is too close to the Sun, they become blinded in the Sun’s glare. They are not given all the facts necessary to make a wise purchase. Even Lilly, made a misinformed decision when he went ahead and bought property, when his own symbolic ruler was in this state. In essence, when we see ruler of the 7th combust, clients get burned. In this case, they also get ‘taken to the cleaners’ given Mars opposition.

Management is full of hot air, promising one thing, and delivering another given Jupiter’s conjunction with Mercury in Aries. Most the money to be made on this stock go to the upper echelon. However, big changes are coming up at GS. Even though reporting huge profits for this quarter, the stock went down. Allegations of fraud are being played down by a complacent media. However, one cannot fool Mother Nature. Given Venus’ placement by direction, this is not GS’s death knell by any means.   Even if the SEC suit turns out to be a slap on the wrist, by Summer, we may see some top heads roll. Will one of those heads be CEO Lloyd Blankfein (born September 20 1954 NYC)?

Stay tuned ….

On Friday, we learned that found out that the all time winner in the ‘get away with financial murder’ department, Goldman Sachs has been sued for fraud by the SEC. You may remember that it was those captains of the universe at GS that created the toxic debt instrument, the Collateral Debt Obligation, better known as CDOs, that nearly wiped out the financial institutions.  GS has a lot of chutzpah, because not only are they said to have helped to create the toxicity, but they also managed to get billions of dollars in  TARP  bailout money.

By Joshua Gallu and Christine Harper

April 16 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was sued by U.S. regulators for fraud tied to collateralized debt obligations that contributed to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The firm’s shares tumbled as much as 16 percent and financial stocks slumped.

Goldman Sachs created and sold CDOs tied to subprime mortgages in early 2007, as the U.S. housing market faltered, without disclosing that hedge fund Paulson & Co. helped pick the underlying securities and bet against them, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement today. Billionaire John Paulson’s firm earned $1 billion on the trade and wasn’t accused of wrongdoing. The SEC also sued Fabrice Tourre, a Goldman Sachs vice president who helped created the CDOs.

‘ “The product was new and complex but the deception and conflicts are old and simple,” SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said. “Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market to heavily influence which mortgage securities to include in an investment portfolio, while telling other investors that the securities were selected by an independent, objective third party.”

“Goldman Sachs became emblematic of public outrage at the banking industry after posting a record $13.4 billion profit in 2009, a year after receiving $10 billion in taxpayer aid during the financial crisis.”   More from Bloomberg

Like yours truly, back in 2006 (see Llewellyn’s 2006 Moon Sign Book), Paulson warned investors that the building boom was about to go bust. However, unlike yours truly, Paulson put his money where his mouth was and made a fortune by creating a financial instrument (collateral debt obligation or CDO)  of real estate mortgage based securities (RMBS) that he was betting against.   At first, he lost money, then in 2007, he hit pay dirt – big time. It is estimated in 2007, alone, Paulson & Co. made $15 billion dollars. This transaction, is said to have netted Paulson close to $4 billion dollars.

So where is the fraud?

Not on John Paulson’s part, he has been absolved off all liability in this situation. We need to roll back the clock to 2007. In a nutshell, John Paulson went to Goldman Sachs (as well as other investment banks)  and asked them to ‘create’ (structure) a type of RMBS (special emphasis on the last two letters) that some say was designed to fail. Gary Zuckerman’s book, ‘The Greatest Trade,’ tells us that Paulson shopped around to various banks. Not all of them took the bait.  According to Zuckerman, thinking that Paulson would want especially ‘ugly mortgages,’ Bear Stearns turned him down. There has been the analogy raised that this was like benching your best player, while betting on the opposing team.  While there might be of questionable ethics to create a CDO to fail and then bet against it,  there is hardly anything illegal about that. Investment banks come up with (structure) financial instruments of all types, all the time.

What was the SEC alleges to be fraudulent is that Goldman Sachs,  as well as, their Vice President Fabrice Tourre  not only created the financial instrument, but also prepared the marketing materials, and sold them directly to customers. In addition, and perhaps worst of all, the SEC alleges that Goldman Sachs did not disclose the risk, specifically that hedge fund, Paulson & Co. had a significant bet (short) against this particular financial instrument.

Will this be the end of Goldman Sachs?  Given the heavily restricted resources of the Securities and Exchange Commission and what seems to be the vast resources of Goldman Sachs, I tend to doubt it. However,  given the allegations, it might not be a bad time to check out Goldman Sachs initial public offering. Goldman Sachs went public, that is offered shares in their company stock on May 4th 1999. We use 9:30 a.m., New York, because this is the time that the New York Stock Exchange opened.

Looking at the chart, we see that Cancer rises, making the Moon very important in this chart.  We see that the Moon is in the gambling sign of Sagittarius, placed in the 6th sector of service. In a sense, what G.S. does is to serve the investment community with a host of financial services. The Moon will represent the company, and all who work there.  I have to admit, I was surprised to see a movable sign (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) rising. The movable signs are so named because they are very changeable. And as such, when we see one of them rise, because of the speed involved, there is a sense of hyper speed up. Companies with movable signs on the rise, see a lot of action, but there is less stability than I would like to see in a company that has this kind of influence on the markets.

The next thing I look for is what planet or luminary has power over the sign rising coming up in the east. In the case of GS, the company and all who work, therein, and because we are talking about an stock,  not a corporation (which has different rules) and all who own a piece of it, (stockholders) instead of something stable, to bring balance, instead, we see the fluctuating Moon.  Aptly, the Moon is in speculative sign, Sagittarius, in the service sector, indeed that is what Goldman purports to do, serve the banking and investment community. The Moon is in a wonderful relationship with its ruler, Mr. Moneybags, Jupiter.  Luck is always important in the realm of big time finance, or else it wouldn’t have gotten this big to begin with. In addition to owning the company, Jupiter has a lot to say about the upper echelon of the company. We might say that Goldman Sachs has friends in high places, as can be clearly seen by Jupiter’s position in the tail end of the 10th house. The revolving door between GS and government is well known. We have several C.E.Os who left GS to become Secretary of the Treasury.  Jupiter will represent management.

The deal in question went on April 26, 2007. What is intriguing to me is that it looks like management (the 10th) was very anxious for this deal to proceed.  I do not know the particulars, but with Mars, the North Node and Uranus sitting in the house of bigwigs, on that fateful day, while the diminishing Saturn sat in the

As this suit comes about,  Jupiter just happens to be cresting at the 10th house of the stock. In traditional astrology, the 10th house is what we pay for things. Since the 10th house is the top of the chart, the noon position, it might suggest that the stock price is peaking.  It is interesting to note that the deal itself,  went down on April 26 2007. If we look at the transiting planets on that day,  it looks like management might have been a bit too anxious for push this deal through with anxious Mars, and Uranus all right up at the top on that day.  In addition, the planet of  bear markets and diminishing returns, Saturn was not only in their money house (2nd) but also square their money ruler… It looks, at least from an astrological point of view that Goldman Sachs was ‘hot to trot’ for this deal. We have to wonder what kind of other deals GS had made back in 2007.  Were they anxious about some other trades, or where they just greedy or was this just business as usual? We will probably never know. What we do know is that in 2007, Goldman was trading upwards of $250, but in March had dropped quite a bit, and what we also know is that Goldman dropped 13% on Friday. There are now probes taking place in both Great Britain and Germany.  Don’t forget that Goldman is a huge player  in China.

To be continued…..

Everything is coming up with green bounty on this St. Patrick’s Day, at least for the banks.

Financial pundits tell us that the market has now managed to climb up and over the wall of worry, better known as the ‘resistance’ level. They tell us, statistically, it is now close to impossible for us to have any sort of a ‘crash’ after 13 months of an up cycle. The  the ‘resistance level’ can be likened to the line of scrimmage in sports. It is created by taking a daily average of whichever index you are studying,  for any given period of time. Whenever the market gets closer to this line of demarcation, it is not unusual to see the bears come out in force,  and the market then tends to pull back. This can happen several times, until finally after a matter of weeks or months, like a football player climbing over bodies, the market rushes in for the touch down.  In bear markets, the resistance level can remain in place for months, years or,  as in the case of post crash of 1929,  even decades.  About a week or so ago, we managed to cross the resistance level on the Standard and Poors 500 (SPX). Now that the resistance level has finally been crossed, investors can breathe a sigh of relief.  According to the math, the odds for another crash of the magnitude of 2008, are now quite minimal.  While this recovery is still very tenuous, the pundits tell us that the odds of having a crash from this point (i.e., one year after  the last down day of the 2008-9 bear market)  are pretty much nil.

As Cramer would say, ‘Boo Rah!

Is it time to ‘go all in?’ Before you get out your savings and cast your fortune to the fates,  I would still be very careful This recovery is a little different than others.

In a rather eerie and solemn warning, money continues to pour out of the US even with the recovery triumphet call getting shriller and shriller by day.

In 2010, investors around the globe have pulled $15.3 billion out of U.S. stock funds, according to data from EPFR Global, which tracks money flows. Meanwhile, roughly $2 billion has gone into emerging-market stocks — after inflows of $65 billion last year — and $20 billion into U.S. bond funds.

Especially notable is the aversion that individual, presumably longer-term, U.S. investors have had to their own stock market.

This year, $4.6 billion has been pulled out of U.S. stock mutual funds, according to the Investment Company Institute, whose data doesn’t include exchange-traded funds. At the same time, world equity funds have taken in nearly $14 billion and bond funds more than $56 billion. This comes after investors pulled more than $53 billion out of U.S. stock funds in 2009. .

This is a far different pattern than in the wake of other recent bear markets, where investors had viewed market declines as a chance to buy cheap stocks that would inevitably rise.”   -The Investing Contrarian… MORE

However, everything is not just coming up roses.  As we have seen the American investor is not investing in the stocks of good old USof A. In addition, there is a growing concern about the rise of ‘naked’ trading.  Naked” access, a controversial trading practice whereby the big traders, like Goldman Sachs, are executing their trades with high-speed ‘super computers.’ It is estimated that more than 40% of U.S. stock trading volume comes ‘naked’ access. Now that term may sound very sexy, but it should be a wake up call to the small investor.  This is like playing black jack in Las Vegas, you are betting against the house. Ever seen the great chess masters try to beat the computer? How fair and robust can markets be when such an enormous chunk of it is being performed by robot computers programmed to move in milliseconds, while the little guy is left to wait?  We might say there are now two sets of rules, one for the big boys and another for everybody else. From all this, it would appear that the recovery is in full swing., for the banks, that is. Bottom line, if you do not have access to high frequency computers to trade for you, be careful out there!

Another thing we should not forget is that we are still enjoying the affects of last year’s positive annual charts.  Depending on which annual chart you prefer,  we either have 9 days left in that cycle, or 4.  Let’s start with the closest, which begins next Monday Pacific Time.

Most western astrologers,  set the beginning of their year at the Vernal Equinox, which takes place the millisecond that the Sun hits tropical Aries.  Also known as the Spring Ingress Chart, it has been looked upon as a major indicator of the upcoming year by astrologers from ancient times. It can tell us everything from how the weather may be in any given season to the financial ups and downs. As great an indicator as the Ingress charts are, Ptolemy also mentions another predictive chart to determine the fates of the coming year.

” I refer to events that happen yearly in connection with the seasons. In the investigation of this subject it would be appropriate first to define the so called new Moon of the year.”

This is a chart which is drawn up for the moment that Moon is one with the Sun. Interestingly enough, while too many westerners have forgotten Ptolemy’s recommendation, astrologers in India, following 5th century astrologer, Varahamihira, still use this chart to determine what is in store for the year ahead.

Since history is a great teacher, let’s take a quick look at last year’s New Moon of the year, to how that chart came to past.

The recovery of the banks  was  clearly indicated by the presence of the very positive Jupiter in the 8th house of banks. In addition,  the very magnetic and very materially positive North Node joins Jupiter in the house of banks. These are two strong indicators of the regeneration of banking.  Notice also that President Obama, as depicted by ruler of the 10th, is ‘in the pocket’ of the bankers as indicated by his emplacement in therein. And as we saw, Obama pretty much allowed the banks to do as they please.

While banks flourished, the buying power of the average citizen diminished.  When Tim Geitner says, ‘we saved the economy, but we kind of lost the public’ he’s not kidding.  So far, the little guy Obama pledged to save, is barely treading water. Notice, the draining South Node in the house of the citizen’s money, the 2nd. Real estate prices remain flat to decreasing, as evidenced by Saturn in the 4th house.  Notice the Moon ruler of the people in any mundane or financial chart, is obscured in the Sun’s rays, and prohibited from contact with money.  It was good for the market because co ruler of the speculative 5th, is trine the Parsfortuna, which resulted in a 70% recovery.

What’s in store for 2010? Stay tuned……

Next year promises to be a big one, given the astrological signatures out there.  Bay Area folks who  want to know what tomorrow will bring, today, will be pleased to know that San Francisco Astrological Society is hosting a panel on December 17th who can tell us  just that! (continue reading…)