Astrology and Investment

[Professor Frink]

I enjoyed reading this in yesterday's Ann Arbor (MI) News:

Financial Planning Using Astrology

 

[MRC_Hans]

Well, with a clear advantage over other investment planners, these people will soon prove their abilities by becoming stinking rich!

Hans

 

[Drooper]

Unfortunately, it is a case that if this did work...it wouldn't work.

A result from the efficient market hypothesis.


If you invented a way to get superior investment returns and couldn't/didn't keep it a deadly secret, then everyone would use it and the superior return that was available would be priced out.


e.g. If your astrology told you that company X, which presently traded at $5 would really produce $10 of value in the future you would buy it and get a superior return to other investors. But if more people know the same thing, then they will keep buying stick X until the push the price up to $10, its fair value. This would happen extremely quickly.

 

[The Don]

How astonishing,

Absolutely no indication as to whether the astrological predictions are any more or less accurate than any other stock tip.

My own feeling is that if it's a good stock tip, there's probably some insider trading going on somewhere.

As to the rest of the predictions:

- How often is the stock market (which measure ?) low in March ?
- What would be considered a landslide ?

Study group member Richard Smoot, who first learned about astrology from Merriman in the early 1970s, said Merriman's take on interest rates during last year's talk proved accurate. Smoot refinanced his home in March according to Merriman's forecast and said, "I got the best rate there was."

I was under the impression that the Federal Reserve Rate was cut after March last year - surely failing to achieve optimum return ?

 

[Yahweh]

Miracle Stock Advice: The Magic Cat

1. Get 2 plates of cat food of the same brand and equal amounts

2. Find a hungry kitty

3. Place the kitty in front of the 2 plates, observe to see if kitty eats food

If kitty eats from the plate on the left: Buy stock
If kitty eats from the plate on the right: Sell stock
If kitty isnt hungry: Hold
If kitty eats from the right plate, then eats from the left plate: Short
If kitty eats from the left plate, then eats from the right plate: Kill everyone


So simple, I wonder why more people dont use this technique.

 

[phildonnia]

My own feeling is that if it's a good stock tip, there's probably some insider trading going on somewhere.

Either that, or it relies on boring things like "market analysis", and "fundamentals", and "steady dividends", and other things that are unlikely to make you a millionaire by next month.

 

[Cleopatra]

My husband who was working with NYSE used to say that many famous brokers have personal Astrologers. He didn't have one but he was wearing the same sweater for 20 years when he was trading

Woo-wooism dominates the world of financial markets.

The Phillipson Interview that we have seen in another thread says about this topic on page 29 paragraph 9.7.n the following:

Q: Have any tests been made of horary astrologers, medical or business astrologers?

Researchers Not systematically, but isolated tests that have been made have not been encouraging. To be sure, some successes have been claimed, but on inspection the methodology has proved to be suspect. Tests of money market astrologers are particularly suspect because there is no way of knowing how many market investors are actually using astrology, so, we cannot decide whether successes are due to astrology or to investors using astrology. Ironically, once a majority of investors are using astrology, the market cannot fail to contradict astrology. Thus if astrology says sell on the expectation that the market will go up, and all the astro inventors sell, the market is likely to go any way but up

http://www.astrology-and-science.com/pdf/phillintv-vsrhs.pdf

 

[Kerberos]

Miracle Stock Advice: The Magic Cat

1. Get 2 plates of cat food of the same brand and equal amounts

2. Find a hungry kitty

3. Place the kitty in front of the 2 plates, observe to see if kitty eats food

If kitty eats from the plate on the left: Buy stock
If kitty eats from the plate on the right: Sell stock
If kitty isnt hungry: Hold
If kitty eats from the right plate, then eats from the left plate: Short
If kitty eats from the left plate, then eats from the right plate: Kill everyone


So simple, I wonder why more people dont use this technique.

You know a lot of people used to untill they got this really hungry kitten... After that the survivers decided it wasn't worth the risk