Crazy markets? If you like Merriman's mix of market cycles with financial astrology, you'll love Sunday's webcast

The Fed pledged to stay the course in their much-watched comments released this afternoon, and added that the economy is improving. And the Dow lost all its gains for the day, closing down 11. Huh?!? Well, maybe it's true there's more in heaven and earth than dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio! One of the analysts we appreciate reference is Raymond Merriman, who incorporates big-picture (position and swing trading) cycles with fascinating social, economic and financial insights incorporating astrology. If you've been reading the Merriman Market Analyst - Weekly Previews, you know he's providing a webcast on Sunday. You can see the information posted at http://www.mmacycles.com/weekly-preview/. Here is their banner that leads to their site for info - I don't get anything from this, other than the satisfaction of making sure my readers who may be interested, get the info:

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While we're at it, below is a quote from last Friday's comments by Merriman. True, these are the public ones, so don't incorporate his subscription service comments. And you also get the flavor that nothing is necessarily written in concrete for how the short-term movements play out. However, it's a good read with reminders of things to be alert for:

The heart of a powerful time band of geocosmic signatures is approaching at the end of this week. Monday begins a translation of the Sun to the Saturn-Uranus opposition. The Sun will square Uranus on Monday, December 14 and the translation ends when the Sun squares Saturn on December 25. Venus will then do the same type of translation, first with its square to Uranus on December 19 and then a square to Saturn on December 29. Trying to forecast mundane and financial market trends under such signatures is always a challenge, for Uranus rules the unexpected. In the case of the Sun and Venus in Sagittarius, one would expect optimism, and a sense that things will be OK, even favorable. In terms of holiday shopping, this would portend better sales than expected, for Sagittarius and its ruler Jupiter tends to be generous in gift-giving. But in terms of mundane and world events, these same signatures can coincide with sudden shocks. Saturn governs the principles of loss, restriction, and stress. Uranus has rulership over events like earthquakes and unexpected and disturbing events. On top of that, Mars will turn retrograde next weekend, on December 20. This highlights the aggression principle of Mars at a time when the peace-loving principles of Jupiter and Neptune are also in play.

Of course we continue to work with other technical analysis methods, including channels, support/resistance, breadth, wave counts, etc. But if you find Merriman's work as insightful as I do - or even if you're just interested in big questions like, what will gold and oil do next year? - then check out this webcast.