It is a little known fact that W.D. Gann went to India and studied Indian Sidereal Astrology. In his notebooks we find sketches of astrological symbols. In his memories, he discusses his discovery: the Gann wheel was first used by tea merchants in seventeenth century India. The same timing tool that built one of the most celebrated careers in market forecasting history has its roots in the ancient Indian science of time.

Indian Time Cycles and Market Forecasting

The Indian system works through what is called a dasa — a period of time during which one’s life is influenced and governed by a particular planet. Each planet has a fixed number of years it rules: Mars governs for 7 years, Venus for 20, Sun for 6, Moon for 10, Rahu for 18, Jupiter for 16, and Saturn for 19. Within each major period, smaller sub-periods replicate the full sequence, creating a fractal structure of timing that can be pinpointed to the week and the day. Where the cycle begins is determined by the position of the moon at birth — or in the case of a market, at the moment of its first transaction.

The chart below summarizes how each major period expresses itself in financial markets:

The 1987 Crash and the Venus/Rahu Window

The power of this system becomes most visible in how it handled the 1987 crash. Barry Rosen pulled the NYSE’s first-tick records from the Chicago Board of Trade archives in April 1990, confirming May 17, 1792 as the birth date of the exchange. On October 19, 1987, the NYSE natal chart was running a Venus/Rahu sub-period in combination with an eclipsed Sagittarius constellation. This Venus/Rahu combination had appeared at every prior sharp decline in the exchange’s recorded history. To read these periods correctly, one needs to examine four or five levels of the dasa sequence simultaneously. Looking at only one or two levels produces a picture that is neither fully positive nor negative. The combination is the signal.

How to Read a Planetary Period

The positive or negative nature of a dasa period depends on where the governing planet sits in the natal chart — the house it occupies, the houses it rules, and the houses it aspects. A planet making a trinal aspect in its final sub-period will have its most beneficial influence. A planet making a square from the 4th house will suppress and make things very difficult. These rules apply whether you are reading a personal chart or the birth chart of the New York Stock Exchange. Anyone attempting to uncover the mysterious laws of nature that underlie the commodity markets will be rewarded and intrigued by the depth of Indian astrology.

Understanding your Indian dasa cycles and transits is an important part of trading successfully — a combination of tools will lead to an awe-inspiring appreciation of the timing patterns available to you.

Originally published in the NCGR Journal, Winter 1990. Reprinted from the Fortucast Market Timing course manual “Planetary Influences: Vedic Astrology and Market Forecasting.”