The price of the cryptocurrency has fallen from $13,412

REVIEW AND PREVIEW

The price of bitcoin is on track for its worst quarter performance ever. The price of the cryptocurrency has fallen from $13,412 on January 1 to $7266 on March 30, marking more than a 45% decline… At a G-20 meeting this month, Argentina's central bank governor outlined a summer deadline for members to have "specific recommendations on what to do" and said task forces are working to submit proposals by July. Italy's central bank leader told reporters after the meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that cryptocurrencies pose risks but should not be banned, according to Reuters. – Arjun Kharpal, “Bitcoin Is on Track for Its Worst First Quarter Ever with Over $114 Billion Wiped Off Its Value,” www.cnbc.com, March 30, 2018.

We have a saying in financial market circles that whenever a stock or commodity’s performance reaches newsworthiness, that rally or decline is about to end. The above article doesn’t tell the full extent of bitcoin’s woes as of late. When you consider that it made its all-time high on December 18, 2017 at $19,458 and then plummeted to $5911 on February 6, 2018, that decline was a much larger 70% in only 7 weeks than the decline of the first quarter 2018. The low of Friday, March 30, was down to $6553, still above the $5911 low of February 6, but getting close. Our historical studies at MMA following the burst of a “bubble,” show that most financial markets will then lose 77-93% of their value before reversing back up. Bitcoin is not that far from achieving that distinction, and as it nears this level, it is starting to receive media notice. At the low, there will likely be reports of its imminent demise. But, if history repeats its usual pattern, that will be just about the time that it starts to recover.

No one is predicting that the stock market is about to go “belly up,” however. Yet, there is not a lack of belief that the stock market is already in the early throes of a new bear market, especially in the tech-heavy NASDAQ, which fell from an all-time high of 7637 on March 13, to a 7-week low of 6901 just two weeks later on March 28. That was a quick loss of nearly 10%. What is most remarkable about this decline is how well it fit with our geocosmic studies. You may remember that this column identified March 1-13 as a “Jupiter-heavy” period, when we expected stock markets to rally. March 13 was the the date of the third and final Jupiter transit (Sun trine Jupiter). MMA’s next gecosmic critical reversal date was March 27-28, coincident with Venus conjunct Uranus. Uranus rules technology stocks. As if awakened by its own internal alarm clock, the NASDAQ bottomed right on March 28 – right on the Venus/Uranus conjunction - and promptly rallied triple digits on Thursday, the next day, and the last trading day of the week. I know there are many investors who think astrology is nonsense, a superstition and not worthy of consideration as a valuable market timing tool. But here is the thing: these kinds of synchronized correlations happen far too often to be causally dismissed as coincidence, which is easy to do by those who have not done the research, who have not really put in any effort to understand the history of how markets behave.

The pattern of most world stock indices was similar to one another last week. That is, all made lows of importance during the week, and most traded higher into Thursday-Friday. Some took out their lows of February 2018, like the Japanese Nikkei, Australian ASX, India’s Nifty, and all the European markets, except the Amsterdam AEX index. Others held above their lows of February 9 on the March 26-28 decline, such as in the America’s (North and South), as well as in China and Hong Kong. Thus, world stock indices are exhibiting multiple cases of intermarket bullish divergence signals after putting in lows last week, and as we come to the end of this March 22-April 2 geocosmic reversal zone. Will the rallies continue off last week’s low amidst these bullish charting signals? Or will Mercury the Trickster, who is now retrograde (March 22-April 14), negate them?

Last week’s market activity was favorable for treasuries and crude oil, which soared to new cycle highs. It was not so favorable for Gold and Silver, which topped out in our March 27-28 critical reversal zone and then fell sharply into Thursday. Bitcoin, as mentioned at the top of this week’s column, suffered all week, and now threatens to continue its washout to the $5000 mark or even lower, if it doesn’t reverse now, as Mars makes it conjunction to Saturn on April 2.

SHORT-TERM GEOCOSMICS AND LONGER-TERM THOUGHTS

By the early 1970’s American policy makers … severed the dollar’s link to Gold and allowed the greenback’s value to float relative to other currencies, in the hope that it would depreciate and smoothly reduce the trade deficit. The opposite happened. No longer bound by fixed exchange rates and dollar convertibility, the U.S. government’s fiscal discipline broke down. Federal debt … soon began rising steadily… If the U.S. has reached the end of its rope and is unwillingly to feed the world’s demand for dollar through its trade deficit, then international monetary reform is the answer. It would put U.S. trade on a more level playing field, enforce fiscal discipline in Washington, and help millions of American workers. Sean Rushton, “Monetary Reform Would Rebalance Trade,” Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2018.

Gold gets a bad rap in some history books because of its misuse during the 20th century. This ignores its peacetime record of high growth and nil inflation between 1834-1913 (when there was no USA central bank, no Federal Reserve) … Returning to the gold standard is a way for the president to deliver on his promise of American working class prosperity. Alex X. Mooney, “Steel and Aluminum? Let’s Talk About Gold,” Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2018.

After this week’s full moon (March 31) and Mars conjunct Saturn (April 2), the cosmos swings back and forth between moments of agreement and hope, followed by moments of uncertainty and hesitancy to make commitments. Ideas sound good, as Venus trines Mars, Saturn, and Pluto, April 7-17. But promises waver as the Sun squares Uranus and Pluto, while Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto change directions, April 10-22. This pertains to matters of both love and money, with the latter showing up in stock market behavior. As tax season ends with the new moon and Mercury turning direct on April 15, attention starts to shift to new matters. After all, it is a New Moon in Aries, and both symbolize new beginnings. On top of that, heliocentric Mercury will enter Sagittarius April 17-27, and markets may start a new round of volatility then, especially in precious metals. So, in the true spirit of Aries initiative, let me take a stab at the direction I think the world geopolitical attention will shift towards.

We are already in the sign of Aries as of March 20, and one area of attention that Aries commands is national security and military standing. President Trump is supposed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un soon, perhaps in April. Last week I discussed the personality traits and rhetorical skills of a Gemini, such as Donald Trump. Xi Jinping of China is another Gemini, like President Trump. They seem to understand and admire one another, and they engage in international negotiations (and trade) well together. Both also appear to understand and admire fellow air-sign leader Vladimir Putin of Russia, whose natal Sun in Libra is on Trump’s Jupiter, and trine to both Trump’s and Jinping’s Sun. These three leaders are harmonious with one another simply based on their Sun and Jupiter signs. The odd one out is Kim Jong-un, a Capricorn, born January 8, but the year of his birth is uncertain (1982, 83, or 84).

I bring these matters up because I believe astrology is an important key to understand what may soon transpire regarding to Trump’s demands for fair trade and national security, which are probably two important issues with both Xi Jinping (China) and Putin (Russia) as well. These are not two mutually exclusive areas of importance. I think it may be possible that each of these three powerful men want to be known as peace makers, not war mongers, and new trade policies with economic advantages to each, will be the ticket to getting there. But first, they have to play out their war games, or display rhetoric that they are tough leaders who have the military capability to destroy anyone who interferes with their people. Maybe that’s what brings them eventually to the table to work out the details of something very big that most of us just aren’t able to see at this moment. Or maybe it is something we don’t want to see because there are huge trust issues between our leaders and their populace.

As former President Jimmy Carter once stated: Everyone wants world peace. The only impediment to world peace are the leaders of the world.

Happy Easter and Passover holidays to those of who celebrate these religious holidays. In the case of Easter, it is a Christian holiday that commemorates the life and death of their Prince of Peace, which is very appropriate, given the slew of Venus aspects (peace and harmony) coming up in the next two weeks.