Financial markets correlate closely with the 4–14-day cycle of the True Lunar Node (North Node/Rahu) as it moves through its retrograde, stationary, and direct phases. This cycle is best illustrated by charting the True Lunar Nodal Speed against, for example, the S&P 500, where "speed" refers to the node's geocentric motion, measured in degrees of longitude per day.
Last station: Sep 04 (Fri) 03:57, Retrograde (Rx) → Direct. Next: Sep 07 (Mon) 03:12, local maximum
(+0.0190°/day), then Sep 09 (Wed) 15:18, Direct → Rx. True = Mean on Sep 13 (Sun) 07:35 ( EDT).
The True Node is predominantly retrograde, with a negative speed averaging −0.053°/day. It regularly slows, stations (speed = 0°/day), and briefly turns direct, reaching speeds of up to +0.0015°/day, before resuming its retrograde motion. These stationary periods are most pronounced and prolonged near eclipse seasons, which occur roughly every 173 days, when solar perturbations of the lunar orbit are strongest.
Around eclipses, the lunar nodes can shift rapidly between direct, retrograde, and near-
stationary motion, coinciding with sentiment extremes and elevated market volatility.
stationary motion, coinciding with sentiment extremes and elevated market volatility.
Expect potential short-term changes in trend when the True Lunar Nodal Speed (blue solid line in the charts above):
► changes direction, shifting from retrograde to direct and back (speed = 0°/day); or
► reaches a maximum or minimum extreme
► reaches a maximum or minimum extreme
► equals Mean Nodal Speed
annular solar eclipse Feb 17, total lunar eclipse Mar 03.
Blue wave is True Node speed on price scale; dashed blue is speed = 0 (direct above, retrograde below); red dashed is mean speed. Blue dates are stations/extrema in ET. Red vertical dates are True speed = Mean speed. Gold = solar, purple = lunar eclipse.
Q1 2026: True Lunar Nodal Speed at 0°/Day, at Extremes, and Equal to Mean Nodal Speed.
However,
neither the daily nor the 4-hour chart follows the node. They may
answer it, late or early by a bar or two on the 4-hour chart, and
sometimes not at all. There hardly is any 1-to-1 correlation. What the
speed curve is good for is identifying the hours when a crowd's appetite
changes. A station (speed through 0°) is the useful alert: the True
Node has stopped adding longitude or stopped subtracting it. That pause
often appears as a change of character in the next one to three 4-hour
bars—wider range, a failed break, or the first close that refuses the
prior drift—rather than as a guaranteed reversal print at the exact
minute.
Extrema serve a different purpose. A deep retrograde minimum represents a maximum rate of withdrawal; in Q1, the January 16 and January 30 lows, and in Q3, the July 12 and July 26 lows, fell within or just behind washout clusters already underway. The signal is not "buy the timestamp." It is "the selling has reached a dated climax window; now wait for the 4-hour structure to stop making lower lows after that window." The brief direct maxima are weaker. They last only a few days and often mark nothing more than a pause within an existing drift. Trading them as tops is therefore unreliable; in this sample, they more often mark a pause in the existing drift than a reversal of it.
Extrema serve a different purpose. A deep retrograde minimum represents a maximum rate of withdrawal; in Q1, the January 16 and January 30 lows, and in Q3, the July 12 and July 26 lows, fell within or just behind washout clusters already underway. The signal is not "buy the timestamp." It is "the selling has reached a dated climax window; now wait for the 4-hour structure to stop making lower lows after that window." The brief direct maxima are weaker. They last only a few days and often mark nothing more than a pause within an existing drift. Trading them as tops is therefore unreliable; in this sample, they more often mark a pause in the existing drift than a reversal of it.
Q2 2026: True Lunar Nodal Speed at 0°/Day, at Extremes, and Equal to Mean Nodal Speed.
True
nodal speed equal to mean speed is mostly a mid-wave event, not a turn.
Red dates on these charts sit on the slope, not at the crest. Use them
as confirmation that the osculating node has fallen back in step with
the secular drift, which on the 4-hour chart tends to coincide with a
continuation bar rather than a reversal. The April 2026 stretch is the
clearest illustration of slope over event: from the April 4 minimum
through the April 10–11 station and maximum, the 4-hour market rose with
the wave. May 30 is the counterexample: a deep minimum against a market
that only chopped at the highs. A minimum that does not meet a 4-hour
breakdown is not a trade.
Delay is the practical rule. Weekend stations (e.g. March 21, May 30, June 14) spend their first reaction in Sunday–Monday futures and only then in the cash session; do not treat the Saturday timestamp as a Monday open. Intraday, the usable lag is one to six 4-hour bars. July 31 into August 2 is the best sequence in the file: station, then maximum, while the 4-hour S&P left the July hole and ran. September 4, 03:57 EDT, retrograde to direct, presents the opposite texture—an event at the local high, followed by a fade in the later bars of the same day. The same class of event, two market answers. The distinction is the 4-hour structure already in place when the node arrives.
Delay is the practical rule. Weekend stations (e.g. March 21, May 30, June 14) spend their first reaction in Sunday–Monday futures and only then in the cash session; do not treat the Saturday timestamp as a Monday open. Intraday, the usable lag is one to six 4-hour bars. July 31 into August 2 is the best sequence in the file: station, then maximum, while the 4-hour S&P left the July hole and ran. September 4, 03:57 EDT, retrograde to direct, presents the opposite texture—an event at the local high, followed by a fade in the later bars of the same day. The same class of event, two market answers. The distinction is the 4-hour structure already in place when the node arrives.
total solar eclipse Aug 12, partial lunar eclipse Aug 28; last S&P 500 bar Sep 04.
Q3 2026: True Lunar Nodal Speed at 0°/Day, at Extremes, and Equal to Mean Nodal Speed.
Used
as a short-term timing method, then: ignore lobes shorter than six
days; treat the seven-to-eight-day swing as the holding window; take
stations as tempo alerts and extrema as climax windows; and require the
next 4-hour bar to confirm.
Q4 2026: True Lunar Nodal Speed at 0°/Day, at Extremes, and Equal to Mean Nodal Speed.
(Date and Time calculated for New York City, ET).
And, as always, what is being practiced here is attention and precision, not prediction: any market still has to print a reversal in its own highs and lows. Used this way, the inflection points and crossings in the True and Mean Lunar Nodal Speed curves may serve as a reminder to pay closer attention during the upcoming nodal events listed above. But for a short-term trader simply looking to make money in the markets, better to ignore them altogether and focus on market structure, price action, and risk management instead (Williams, Unger, Huddleston, Burke).
See also: