— Bloomberg Magazine, March, 1998.

Financial astrologer Bill Meridian has compiled a list of first-trade charts in his book Planetary Stock Trading. Astrologer Alphee Lavoie and Meridian together have created the Financial Trader program, a software program that tracks stock birthdays. Min uses the program's charts to supplement his technical analysis of the markets - a plan that panned out when he bought Maxxam, a holding company for racetracks, mining, and lumber that's based in Houston. Maxxam was born under Jupiter, and when the charts showed that buying a Jupiter stock was a good idea for Geminis, Min bought Maxxam. Three weeks later, he again followed the stars and sold the stock, doubling his money.

— Considerations, reviewed by Ken Gillman

Book Review: Planetary Stock Trading

Planetary Stock Trading is a welcome and essential reference for anyone involved in Financial astrology. It contains the charts of 1,062 First Trades for 715 NYSE and 347 OTC stocks. We already have available Carol Mull's invaluable books, which give the incorporation data for companies, but, as Meridian explains, while a company's incorporation chart reflects the fundamental operations of. company, transits and directions to it do not necessarily show how Wall Street views the company and how the stock price can fluctuate It is the First Trade chart that tends to correlate with changes in a company's price on the market The best combination is to have both charts available, a company's Incorporation and its First Trade. The financial astrologer is ten able to evaluate both its basic business and how the stock market will anticipate its future profitability.

Besides the invaluable charts it contains, Meridian's book will be of particular value for its clear explanation of how to interpret a First Trade chart and identify winners, how to relate incorporation and First Trade charts, how to select which charts to work with, and for the series of thirty-three case studies which clearly highlight how a company's First Trade chart should be used and how its progressions and transits correlate with changes in the financial markets. One example of these fascinating and educational case studies is that of IBM is reprinted in this issue of Considerations. Bill Meridian's Planetary Stock Trading is worth having for these excellent Case Studies alone.

The book's "Appendix", which separately lists each planet by its longitude in ach of these First Trade charts, sorted in zodiacal sequence will be very useful for anyone wanting to identify potential winners and losers on Wall Street. Knowing, for example, that the October 1995 Solar eclipse occurs at 0º Scorpio, it is a simple matter to identify each company by the planets in its First Trade chart that are aspected by the eclipse. Falling on the First Trade's Venus, Jupiter or Uranus, the eclipse is likely to stimulate that company's stock price; on Saturn or Neptune it may depress it. Having identified a potential mover using the index, the would-be investor then turns to the main part of the book to examine the complete First Trade chart of the relevant company and decides whether or not it has basically beneficial aspects to his or her own natal chart. When these are positive, the company is then further investigated as a possible investment vehicle using technical analysis and an in-depth study of the transits and progressions to the first Trade and Incorporation charts. The actual purchase of the identified stock should occur on a day when there are no major difficult aspects in the sky and when both the investor's chart and the company's First trade chart receive benefic transit aspects.

Investing one's own hard-earned savings on the Stock Exchange is something few can afford to tackle lightly. There is always the potential risk of loss. Intelligent and patient use of the charts and insights provided in Bill Meridian's Planetary Stock Trading may just provide the positive edge for which we have all been searching. Strongly recommended. –Ken Gillman

AFA Book Review — Planetary Stock Trading by Bill Meridian

You'd like to make money? While there are no guarantees (despite many who claim to have the answers,) this new book comes the closest to that utopia that we've even seen published in astrological language.

Planetary Stock Trading clearly spells out the approach to making money, the basis being 1,000 horoscopes of NYSE and NASDAQ stocks. Data used is available only from the exchanges and normally onl6 available exclusively to member firms. The techniques described by the author are those he has utilized successfully in his career.

Here in one volume you will find not only the horoscopes of 1,000 companies, but the time and date of first trade of these companies as well. What a bonus! Here, for the first time in print is a method for individual stock selection through analysis of the first trade horoscope (a chart cast for the moment a stock begins trading.) The author also includes case studies of investment decisions that were made astrologically over the past two decades.

As always, you will find the standard disclaimer - there is no guarantee of future success, and no liability is assumed by the author for unsuccessful trades made through use of the methods described in this book. Yet, as you read this exciting, easy to understand presentation of the author's system in selecting individual stocks, you gain confidence there is something to learn there which makes sense. Astrological stock market forecasts continue to gain followers. This book will quickly be at the top of the heap in that regard. $45.000 plus postage and handling.

Perhaps the most underrated function yet potentially the most practical application, astrology can offer the general public is as a guide to financial investments. Personal astrology can put a monetary significance to any of the twelve houses- though the second and eighth houses are the most commonly cited (as personal and joint assets). The fifth house describes speculative ventures, including gambling. playing the lottery, or investing in the stock market. So what do you do if your chart indicates it1s a good time to take the plunge, to out all your money in the market, and then watch it soar in value? Specifically, what company should you buy into?

Before you take the advice of your stockbroker, you should read Bill Meridian's Planetary Stock Trading. Meridian makes the point that buying and selling a stock based on the incorporation horoscope is not nearly as accurate as the First Trade horoscope. He demonstrates in many clearly articulated examples, with price charts and comparative natal maps, that a company's stock moves most strongly according to the astrological indicators shown in the first trade chart. Planetary Stock Trading is a compilation of over 1OOO first trade Charts, with subgroups arranged under the three Dow Jones sectors (32 industrials, 2O transportations, 16 utilities), plus 850 NYSE and 347 OTC

For anyone interested in financial astrology, Meridian's book provides valuable insights for exactly which indicators move a stock. The appendices list organizes and lists every planetary position in every first trade chart, which makes it easy to locate a prime candidate for a big move. Suppose for example, that a solar eclipse will be taking place near transiting Uranus. (This actually happened on January 4, 1992) Since solar eclipses and Uranus transits over a natal Jupiter are at the top of the list of the most important market movers, the investor will want to know what companies have a natal Jupiter located at this degree. Going through the Jupiter listings for 11º-16º Capricorn, one finds a list of eight companies which will be directly impacted by this Celestial hit. Over the next quarter the DJlA improved 1.5%, but the eight stocks found by this technique had an average improvement of plus 19%, with Unisys leading the pack by 113%.

This is good news for stock investors with a penchant for astrology. The truly exciting section of Planetary Stock Trading is the chapter on case studies, which details how a company's big moves, its trendline reversals and breakthroughs, correspond to the first trade chart. This is where the introductory guidelines am tested and put to practical application. Now the hungry astrologer will want to know why, In the above cited example, Unisys far outperformed the other seven stocks selected from the criteria.

Intuitively the answer must lie in the natal potential for growth. Meridian isolates this potential from the perspective of the natal Jupiter being triggered. Specifically he analyzes the midpoint structure, and thereby finds that Unisys has a more promising potential. While this is undoubtedly a significant factor, it seems to this reviewer that Unisys did so well because that quarter it was also experiencing a tertiary Full Moon. Meridian mentions both these techniques in his work (tertiaries and progressed lunation patterns), but hasn't yet correlated them to market movers.

In any case, all the material you need to find stock winners can be found in Planetary Stock Trading. There's plenty of diagnostic tools here to conduct your own research, and to enhance your own prosperity consciousness.

—Claude Weiss, Astrologie Heute

"...Planetary Stock Trading, which is an incredible collection of data of companies. I am sure that this book will be of great interest to European financial astrologers and we shall be happy to discuss it in one of our next issues of Astrologie Heute.

— Financial Cycles

Bill Meridian Does It Again: Another Breakthrough Book In Investment Astrology

Lets face it; learning financial astrology is not necessarily an easy task. You have to master the basics of astrological symbolism, which goes beyond the dimensions of the simple Sun sign columns you'll find in the daily newspaper. You have to learn applications of that symbolism, for financial horoscopes are quite different than the natal charts of individuals. Then you have to learn the language of the markets, with a particular emphasis on the tools and techniques of technical analysis as it is applied to stocks, commodities, and other markets

And the learning curve doesn't stop there. You have to become reasonably comfortable with trading systems and with the psychological dynamics of trading. And finally, you have to be willing to conduct your own ongoing research - or at least to follow the current research work of others - since financial astrology is a living, growing field that morphs and evolves before your eyes and the assumptions and methodologies of yesterday can be suddenly made obsolete by the empirical observations of today.

The whole process can be rather intimidating- it's anything but an effortless path to easy money. Even so, if you're willing to put in the necessary years of preparation and study, if you're able to bring high levels of clarity and consciousness to your work, and if you can maintain a disciplined approach to your trading and research, financial astrology can be enormously rewarding - intellectually and financially.

But what do you do if you're a beginner, if you're just getting your feet wet in the markets and you want to add financial astrology to your bag of market analysis tools? Where do you turn? How can you get reliable guidance through the maze of problems, promises, and possibilities that confront you?

You may want to begin with a tutorial program or a hands-on workshop conducted by an experienced financial astrologer whose work resonates well with your own investment goals. You can subscribe to one or more of the market newsletters in our field and pay close attention to the astrological methods that the writers employ. Or you could just start out by reading Bill Meridian's book on Planetary Stock Trading, which is hot off the press in a newly expanded and revised edition from Cycles Research.

This is not a basic astrology book, however, if you know some astrological fundamentals, you'll find it a clear guide to follow in converting your basic knowledge into market methodology. But even though you don't have to be an expert to get considerable value from this book, you won't be getting information that's glib, watered down, or oversimplified. From beginning to end, this is the real stuff-- clear, well-thought-out material you can use to make money in the markets.

When the first edition of Planetary Stock Trading was published, it revolutionized financial astrology by focusing first trade horoscopes instead of incorporation chart as analytical tools. As a guidebook and as a reference source, it rapidly became an essential tool for any serious financial astrologer-- in fact, I personally wore out one copy of the first edition and then got a second copy to refer to almost daily until this new edition arrived.

But is the new edition of this modern classic worth having? You'd better believe it! It's everything the first edition was, and much, much more.

In the summer of 1995, when Financial Cycles published a review of this book's first edition, I noted that Bill Meridian has combined his thorough understanding of astrology and technical analysis with a rigorously applied empirical exploration of real-world market behavior to develop an exemplary body of work that will help financial astrology claim its rightful place in the 21st Century. While that statement certainly remains true of the new edition, it should be under scored arid primed in bold type. The improvements made in the new edition are so significant that I can unhesitatingly say that Planetary Stock Trading is the single most important book for anyone who is serious about using astrological methodologies for successful trading in the equities markets.

Planetary Stock Trading provides a huge collection of first-trade horoscopes, making it a reference work that belongs on every astro-trader's desk. The current edition features extensive changes to this chart collection. To begin with, 255 of the horoscopes which were included in this book's first edition have now been eliminated, since the stocks have stopped trading due to corporate takeovers, mergers, and bankruptcies. Another 150 horoscope charts have been eliminated from the pages of the book, since the stocks involved have been so thinly traded that they deserve only secondary attention. The data for those horoscopes has been retained in an appendix to the book, so you can still use your own computer to generate the horoscope wheels if you're tracking one of those stocks. The new edition also includes horoscopes for mutual funds, foreign funds, and about 50 horoscopes of the top stocks trading in the UK. In addition, you'll find charts for the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve, and other financial institutions

Unfortunately, in spite of all the improvements made to the chart collection in the currentt edition, it features a single distressing error. The chart for Microsoft, which was incorrectly calculated for Eastern Daylight Time instead of Eastern Standard Time in the book's first edition, has been reprinted in its incorrect form in the new edition as well. The data included for Microsoft is correct; only the chart is wrong. No sooner had the new book gone into distribution than the author personally sent buyers an Errata sheet from his office in Abu Dhabi-- along with four bonus horoscopes, for At Home, Earthlink, eBay, and Mindspring.

But the horoscope charts aren't the most significant change to the new edition of Planetary Stock Trading, There are more case studies illustrating astrological principles at work in the market, including Compaq's 1998 buyout of Digital Equipment, the Barnett Bank buyout in 1997, an analysis of Yahoo!, and the decline of Lotus culminating in its takeover by IBM.

If you're suspecting that this book is heavily weighted toward technology stocks, you're right. That's only fitting, however, since the tech stocks have long been the darlings of the market. But Bill Meridian doesn't limit his research and his case studies to that arena. The new case studies also include Ted Turner's failed attempt at a takeover of Kingworld, the Lowe's stock bottom in 1997, and an analysis of the New Moon's impact on the NASDAQ Composite average in early 1998. He even uses (gasp!) an incorporation chart as a confirming factor in his case study of American Power Conversion. In short, no matter what flavor of equities you're interested in, you're sure to find solid resource material here.

The case studies are certainly valuable, but this book doesn't stop there .What makes Planetary Stock Trading so remarkable is the degree to which its author explains the basic methodology of astrological investing. And, like all competent financial astrologers, Bill Meridian doesn't do his astrology in a vacuum. He combines the astrological approach with the tools of technical analysis, and goes to great pains to make sure that his readers can get a good grasp of both approaches as they interact.

You'll find an explanation of the "Stop-and-Reverse" method of using astrology as an early warning system for detecting potential price changes in stocks. You'll also get insights on how to use astrology to forecast earning reports and their impact on stock prices. You'll find a discussion of the planets that rule various industries, with tips on how to use them as factors in astrological analysis. There's even a detailed section entitled "Market Analysis for Astrologers" that introduces basic technical indicators to those who are more comfortable with astrology than they are with the language and methodologies of the markets. It all adds up to all incredible set of resources and study materials -- all you need to add is the hard work of applying the principles to your own market analysis and portfolio management.

There are, however, ways of making that work less odious. Computers have made all of our lives easier, and computers are absolutely essential for anyone who wants to get involved in financial astrology. Fortunately, Bill Meridian is not only the author of Planetary Stock Trading; he is also one of the key developers, along with AIphee Lavoie and Sergei Tasarov, of the Financial Trader for Widows market analysis computer program. This is one of the most powerful and versatile programs available for financial astrologers today; if it isn't running on your desktop already it needs to be. But one of the weak spots of the computer program is its printed documentation, which leaves much to be desired. I hope this new edition of an outstanding book will inspire a revision of the manual for the program!

— The Mountain Astrologer, reviewed by Georgia Stathis.
B ook Reviews: Planetary Stock Trading by Bill Meridian

If you've looked for a clear and succinct method of understanding and analyzing first trade charts of companies, this is the book to get. Bill Meridian has successfully set out to teach the reader an organized approach to analyzing these charts. A special quality of this volume is the incredible amount of insider information that Bill utilizes, gleaned from his many years on Wall Street. The charts he uses are the "first trade" charts of companies, i.e., the moment the company began publicly trading. This information is next to impossible to get, but Bill has done it. In his research, he found first trade charts had a greater correlation to stock price movements than did the charts of incorporations.

The book begins with a very organized presentation of first trade and company delineation. It clearly defines the distinction between IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) and first listings. The case studies of such companies as Delta Airlines, IBM, and Kemper (to name just a few of the case studies presented), allow the reader to learn Meridian's techniques of delineation. A similar tactic is ued in the better M.V.A. programs, which train people through actual events, to be strategists or managers.

Consecutively, the data in the book is then organized alphabetically; (11) The Dow Jones Industrials; (2) The Dow Jones Transport Stocks, (3) The Dow Jones Utility Stocks; (4) the S&P Stocks; and (5) OTC (Over the counter or NASDAQ stocks). This book makes available over 1,000 first trade horoscopes for those who many not need or want to purchase the software that is available entitled, The Financial Trader and Star Trax available through Alphee Lavoie (800-659 247).

The book concludes with an extensive appendix listing the planets, lunar node, Ascendant and Midheaven in decimal notation of zodiacal order preceded by company ticker symbols. (An alphabetical key matches a company with its ticker symbol.) This provides another accessible reference for individual research. For example, a reader could easily locate any positions currently at 2º of any of the mutables - Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces - where transiting Pluto may be hitting in the next year.

In my own work I use several books and references that list such things as company incorporation. Without invalidating those materials, though, I find this information to be far more useful when applied to circumstances of the last several years. With many companies eating up smaller companies and creating an ongoing merger mania, company analysis has become much more difficult.

Meridian's first trade charts operate as the common thread that astrologers need. Now that I've read the book, I think Ill loot at the movie (the software). The information is good, clean, organized in a great layout and presentation format, and is an excellent reference for any astrological library.