Uranus and Neptune Responsible For Solar Grand Minima and Solar Cycle Modulation?

Solar system dynamics have been postulated as the main solar driver for
many decades. Paul D. Jose (1965) was the first to associate a recurring
solar system pattern of the 4 outer planets (179 years). Jose suggested
this pattern correlates with the modulation of the solar cycle. New
research via this study suggests that over the past 6000 years the 179
year cycle cannot be maintained and is closer to a 172 year cycle which
aligns with the synodic period of Uranus & Neptune (171.44 years).

Geoff J. Sharp (2013) - Detailed solar Angular Momentum (AM) graphs produced from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) DE405 ephemeris display cyclic perturbations that show a very strong correlation with prior solar activity slowdowns. These same AM perturbations also occur simultaneously with known solar path changes about the Solar System Barycentre. The AM perturbations can be measured and quantified allowing analysis of past solar cycle modulations along with the 11,500 year solar proxy records (14C & 10Be). 
The detailed AM information also displays a recurring wave of modulation that aligns very closely with the observed sunspot record since 1650. The AM perturbation and modulation is a direct product of the outer gas giants (Uranus and Neptune). This information gives the opportunity to predict future grand minima along with normal solar cycle strength with some confidence. A proposed mechanical link between solar activity and planetary influence via a discrepancy found in solar/planet AM along with current AM perturbations indicate solar cycle 24 & 25 will be heavily reduced in sunspot activity resembling a similar pattern to solar cycles 5 & 6 during the Dalton Minimum (1790-1830; see also HERE).

The path of the Sun shows the two distinct loops around the
Solar System Barycentre (centre point).

Typical planet positions demonstrating strong Types A & B perturbations.
The Type A example is taken from near the centre of the Sporer Minimum
(1472). Type B events coinciding with less reduction of solar activity
compared with Type A events of similar angle (reverse).

U.S. Stocks in 5th strongest and 6th longest Bull Cycle since 1900

The bull market since March 2009 is the 22nd bull cycle since 1900. End of December 2013 it was in its 57th month. This is about the length of the current sunspot cycle 24. The ongoing bull market is now also the 6th longest bull cycle and with a performance of 154% (closing December 31st) the 5th strongest since 1900. 

Sunspot Cycle 24: "None of us alive have ever seen such a weak cycle"

Conventional wisdom holds that solar activity swings back and forth like a simple pendulum.  At one end of the cycle, there is a quiet time with few sunspots and flares. At the other end, Solar Maximum brings high sunspot numbers and solar storms. It’s a regular rhythm that repeats every 11 years. 

Reality, however, is more complicated. Astronomers have been counting sunspots for centuries, and they have seen that the solar cycle is not perfectly regular. For one thing, the back-and-forth swing in sunspot counts can take anywhere from 10 to 13 years to complete; also, the amplitude of the cycle varies. Some solar maxima are very weak, others very strong (HERE). 

But "none of us alive have ever seen such a weak cycle [as the sunspot cycle 24]", said Dr. Leif Svalgaard of Stanford University and other prominent solar scientists at the 2013 Fall Meeting of American Geophysical Union (AGU), held on December 11, 2013 in San Francisco. This solar max is weak, and the overall current cycle conjures up comparisons to the famously feeble Solar Cycle 14 in the early 1900s (see also HERE & HERE).

John Hampson recently expected the "solar cycle 24′s flat top to end by mid-2014", and one of two possibities playing out: "One, equities peak out within the next 6 months, commodities don’t come again, and we thereafter enter the typical post-solar-peak recession (deflationary). Or, two, equities are peaking now and commodities are breaking upwards out of their large consoliation triangles since 2011 to produce a typical late-cyclical final rally and help tip the weak economy into that recession." (see also HERE).

Credits: John Hampson

Credits: Jan Alvestad

 

Credits: Jan Alvestad

45 Year Cycle

The second year of the Decennial Cycle again has this staggering correlation between the US stock markets of 1967 and 2012 - currently 89% (HERE). This is 45 years apart. W.D.Gann veiled it as follows: "The digits 1 to 9 when added together total 45. 45 is the most important angle. Therefore 45 years in time is a very important cycle. One-half of 45 is 22 ½ years or 270 months. One-fourth of 45 is 11 ½ years or 135 months, which is three times 45." 

In other words: Saturn-Uranus Cycle ≈ 45.3 Years ≈ conjunction, square or opposition happening about every 11.3 Years ≈ 4 * Sunspot Cycles of an average of 11.3 Years.  Of course the 45 year cycle is important, but finally just one cycle among many others, all together modulating the tides of events.  

However, sure there are periods with a specific feeling, a mentality, a zeitgeist of the majority of people, an attitude, an aura, that last for about 45 years. Hence there is also a 45 year cycle of scientific and social innovation and stagnation, each of about 20 years where there is science innovation, but humanities, opinion and social relations are "conservative" and do not change. There is a transition of about 2 to 4 years and then the humanities have numerous experiments and changes, but science becomes stagnant and does not innovate. Social conflict, revolution and war are also synchronous with this pattern (HERE & HERE & HERE & HERE).

The average second year of a decade prints a major low around this time of the year, which is (on average) amongst the best long-term buying opportunities of the decade, since during the third year the DJIA significantly surges above the second year highs. Another important fact is, that the DJIA's closed the average Election Year solidly above the June and November lows. Jeffrey Hirsh points out: "Presidential election years are the second best performing year of the four-year cycle ... When incumbent parties retained power ... stocks often bottomed within two years later ... we could see a bottom by 2014." Ten years ago some stock indices bottomed in October 2002, others in March 2003. In fact, the 45 Year Cycle projects another major low into March 2013 (most likely below this upcoming November low), and the low of the decade into May 2015. This is 43 months off the March 2009 low or 4 more 9 Month Cycles throughs ahead of us, where the current Kitchin Cycle terminates. Much could be debated on whether it is the last one of Kondratieff-Winter or the 1st one of Spring in the 6th Kondratieff-Cycle.

Such long-term projections should be understood with a grain of salt, since planetary cycles are not circles, but ellipses, where angular distance and progression does not correlate 1:1 with solar or lunar calendars. Therefore measured in days, weeks or months, these big cycles oftentimes seem to extend or to skip and shrink (HERE). Also a sequence of cycles does not need to print out identical patterns, but similar ones. Therefore the projected panic low in early 2015 does not necessarily need to become a lower low. Given the inflationary monetary policy, it could very well just mark the end of a huge (even ascending) triangle pattern that started in 1998 and 2000. 

Ideally this current decline should end on November 19, and a rally throughout the Thanksgiving-week is likely. Mercury turns direct on November 26, which is best for a ITD #8 high. A drop into a higher low on the Lunar Eclipse on November 28 is expected. An intermediate high will be in by December 3-4. A decline into the December low around New Moon ideally ends on Monday, 17th. From there some sort of early and extended Santa Claus-rally will ensue into year end or even the first trading days of 2013 (see also HERE). This will be the end of the correction. From that important high (right shoulder in the Head-and-Shoulders pattern or TPDH #27) the stock markets will start another steep decline into the general vicinity of the October 2011 low (SPX 1.100 - 1.070 / DJI 10.600 - 10.400). This 9 month cycle low is scheduled for as early as March 1 or as late as the equinox. It will be the low of 2013, the start of a new TPDH-pattern and the launchpad for a rally into December 2013. This matches the latest prediction for Sunspot Cycle 24 with a maximum in the Fall of 2013. What puzzles however is the Commercial's Eurodollar Positions suggesting the party will be over by late May early June 2013 already. Time will tell.

2013 - Peaks in Solar Cycle #24, Stocks and Commodities

Credits: John Hampson

... Solar peaks occur roughly every 11 years and secular peaks in equities and commodities occur close to solar peaks. There is a sine wave in long term real stocks and an opposite-polarity sine wave in long term real commodities, both which have around a 33 year (equivalent to 3 solar cycles or 1 lunisolar cycle) duration ... Treasuries (or inverse rates/yields) move in around a 66 year cycle (2 lunisolar cycles) with peaks and troughs converging with secular commodities peaks. The result is we see two different kinds of secular commodities bulls: one set against rates moving to a peak, and one set against rates moving to nothing ...

OT - Impact & Explosion on Jupiter

http://georgeastro.weebly.com/jupiter.html

Apparently, something hit Jupiter during the early hours of Sept. 10th (11:35 UT), igniting a ferocious fireball in the giant planet's cloudtops. Amateur astronomer Dan Peterson Racine, Wisconsin, saw it first through his Meade 12" LX200 telescope. "It was a bright white flash that lasted only 1.5 - 2 seconds," he reports. Another amateur astronomer, George Hall of Dallas, Texas, was video-recording Jupiter at the time, and he confirmed the fireball with this video screenshot (left).

The fireball was probably caused by a small asteroid or comet hitting Jupiter. Similar impacts were observed in June and August 2010. An analysis of those earlier events suggests that Jupiter is frequently struck by 10 meter-class asteroids -one of the hazards of orbiting near the asteroid belt and having such a strong gravitational pull.

HERE

Astronomers around the world will now begin monitoring the impact site for signs of debris - either the cindery remains of the impactor or material dredged up from beneath Jupiter's cloud tops. Some impacts do produce such debris, while others don't. See also HERE & HERE 

Many think this is how and where planets and moons are created, and Immanuel Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision (1950) comes to light, proposing that around the 15th century BCE, Venus was ejected from Jupiter as a comet or comet-like object, passed near Earth (an actual collision is not mentioned).

The object changed Earth's orbit and axis, causing innumerable catastrophes which were mentioned in early mythologies and religions around the world. 

Fifty-two years later, it passed close by again, stopping the Earth's rotation for a while and causing more catastrophes. Then, in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, Mars (itself displaced by Venus) made close approaches to the Earth; this incident caused a new round of disturbances and disasters. 

After that, the current "celestial order" was established. The courses of the planets stabilized over the centuries and Venus gradually became a "normal" planet. See also HERE

On September 9th the San Cristobal volcano in Nicaragua has rumbled to life with three explosions, forcing the evacuation of 3,000 residents. 

San Cristobal, located 135 km northwest of Managua, is one of the country’s most active volcanoes. Since Thursday, when an earthquake of 7.6-magnitude rocked neighboring Costa Rica and was also felt in Nicaragua.
People are now fearing the powerful quake would have an “impact on the activation” on several other active volcanoes in the region. See also HERE

Solar Activity vs Earthquakes and Volcanoes: When solar activity increases, the corpuscular emission and solar magnetic field strength increase rapidly as well, inducing ring currents in various layers of Earth, particularly, in lithosphere and astheposphere.  Currents in asthenosphere appeared as a result of solar activity increase cause mantle heating, its plasticity growth and as a result convection currents acceleration. Convection currents acceleration leads to spreading acceleration, and increase of mantle temperature – to its heat expansion while Earth extension is taken place due to spreading. In the periods of solar activity decrease the ring currents magnitude inducing in the mantle, decreases as well and as a result there decreases temperature and Earth compression, accompanying by the process of subduction. See also HERE

Researchers have noticed coincidence between sunspot minima and occurrences of major earthquakes or volcanoes.The Earth’s iron core (source of the Earth’s magnetic field, i.e. the Earth’s dynamo) does not rotate around the same axes as the Earth itself, hence dislocation of magnetic poles. Jupiter-Saturn gravitational forces pull the Sun around its barycentre. The same forces pull the Earth’s mass centre away from its orbital trajectory, the eccentricity of the Earth’s iron core to the rest of its bodily mass causing drift of its magnetic poles. It follows that a certain major planets configuration will cause disturbances within the Earth’s interior which may initiate major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. See also HERE & HERE

Sunspots & Stocks

There is a correlation between the Sunspot Cycle and the Stock Market: Since 1933-34 all bull market highs (= start of a bear market) occurred 0-13 months after the peak of the Solar Cycle (List):

• HIGH of Solar Cycle #17 in 4/1937 = bear market starts in the Dow Jones 8/1937 (+4 months)
• HIGH of Solar Cycle #18 in 5/1947 = bear market starts in the Dow Jones 6/1948 (+13 months)
• HIGH of Solar Cycle #19 in 3/1958 = bear market starts in the S&P 500 8/1959 (+6 months)
• HIGH of Solar Cycle #20 in 11/1968 = bear market starts in the S&P 500 12/1968 (+1 month)
• HIGH of Solar Cycle #21 in 12/1979 = bear market starts in the S&P 500 11/1980 (+11 months)
• HIGH of Solar Cycle #22 in 7/1989 = bear market starts in the S&P 500 7/1990 (+12 months)
• HIGH of Solar Cycle #23 in 3/2000 = bear market starts in the S&P 500 3/2000 (+0 month)

In early 1968 the quasi gold standard was more or less abolished, which lead to the inevitable expansion in money supply and inflation. Since that time every solar top made a bubble burst, in 3 of the 4 cases even in the same or following month which is incredibly precise:

• HIGH of Solar Cycle #20 in 11/1968: stock market bubble bursts 12/1968 (the S&P 500 high of late 1968 was only exceeded nominally but not in real terms for decades)
• HIGH of Solar Cycle #21 in 12/1979: commodity bubble bursts 1/1980
• HIGH of Solar Cycle #22 in 7/1989: Japan bubble (stocks & real estate) bursts 12/1989
• HIGH of Solar Cycle #23 in 3/2000: stock market bubble bursts 3/2000

The more sun-spots, the more important for financial markets. The solar super-storms of 1859, 1921 and 1989 went along with inflation peaks (Credits: Manfred Zimmel):

• September 1-2, 1859 (highest inflation 1810-1910).
• May, 1921 (highest inflation 1860-1940).
• 1989 (highest inflation since mid 1960s).

The Peak of the current Sunspot Cycle #24 is projected for spring 2013 (HERE). More related online resources: Solar Cycle Progression - Monthly SSN - Calculated annual average SSN - Solar Cycle start – end months, mid-point

In 1965 Charles J. Collins presented his investigation on "The Effect of Sunspot Activity on the Stock Market" (reprinted in the March 1966 of the 'Cycles' Magazine). His theorem is (briefly stated) the following:

(1) An important market peak has been witnessed or directly anticipated when, in the course of each new sunspot cycle, the yearly mean of observed sunspot numbers has climbed above 50.
(2) In each solar cycle, the largest stock market decline, in terms of percentage drop, comes after the sunspot number, on an annual basis, has climbed above 50.

HERE

HERE

Another pattern of stock market tops about 2.5 years before the Sunspot Peak is based on a 11-year smoothing of the data yielding slightly different highs compared to nominal prices (HERE):

Jeffrey Owen Katz and Donna L. McCormick  developed a profitable Trading System based on Sunspot numbers (HERE & HERE p. 198 ff.):

Like  seasonality  and  lunar phase,  solar  activity  appears  to  have  a  real  influence  on some markets, especially the S&P 500 and Minnesota Wheat. As with lunar cycles, this influence is not sufficiently strong or reliable to be a primary element in a portfolio trading system; however, as a component in a system incorporating other  factors,  or  as  a  system  used  to  trade  specific  markets,  solar  activity  is  worth attention. We personally do not believe solar influences directly determine the market.  We  do  suspect  that  they  act  as  triggers  for  events  that  are  predisposed  to occur, or as synchronizers of already-present market rhythms with similar periodicities. For example, if a market is highly over-valued and unstable, as was the S&P 500 in October 1987, a large solar flare might be sufficient to trigger an already-imminent crash.

The observation that sharp down-turns can occur after solar flares has been supported.

Flares are the most powerful and explosive of all forms of solar eruptions, and the most important in terrestrial effect. Large flares release energy equivalent to the explosion of more than 200 million hydrogen bombs in a few minutes' time, sufficient to meet mankind's energy demands for a 100 million years (HERE - HERE - HERE).

HERE

HERE

HERE

Sunspots predict Unemployment Peak in 2015-16 | Tom McClellan

www.mcoscillator.com

"... we can expect a bottom of the current decline in unemployment around 2012. Then we should see a rising unemployment rate in 2013 and beyond, reaching a peak about 3 years after whenever the current sunspot cycle sees its peak."

Prediction of Sunspot Cycle 24-Peak & Long Term Trading Strategy

www.sidc.oma.be

SIDC: The daily (yellow), monthly (blue) and monthly smoothed (red) sunspot numbers since 1994, together with predictions for 12 months ahead: SM (red dots) : classical prediction method, based on an interpolation of Waldmeier's standard curves; CM (red dashes) : combined method (due to K. Denkmayr), a regression technique coupling a dynamo-based estimator with Waldmeier's idea of standard curves. Peak: January 2013

www.solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov

NASA: The current prediction for Sunspot Cycle 24 gives a smoothed sunspot number maximum of about 59 in early 2013. We are currently over three years into Cycle 24. The current predicted size makes this the smallest sunspot cycle in about 100 years. Peak: January-February 2013

www.ips.gov.au

IPS: Peak: December 2012

Last updated 26 Mar 2012 13:03 UT

                         FORECAST SOLAR CYCLE 24
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cycle  Sol. Start  Sol. Max  Max SSN     Length     Rise to Max     Max to End
       Year Mth    Year Mth             Yr   Mth    Years   Mths    Years  Mths
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24     2009 Jan    2012 Dec   90.2     11.0 132     3.9    47       7.1    86

IPS will adjust this forecast cycle as the new cycle unfolds. 
The difficulty is ensuring that adjustments are not made for short 
term variation, only for longer term cycle variation. 

www.swpc.noaa.gov

NOAA: Given the predicted date of solar minimum and the predicted maximum intensity, solar maximum is now expected to occur in May 2013.

Here is the data supporting the shorter term strategy of buying at solar minimums and selling at the next cycle maximum for an average 70% gain:

Why might stocks consistently outperform in these periods from solar minimum to maximum, and underperform from solar peak down to the next solar minimum, particularly as higher solar activity can cause higher geomagnetism on Earth which affects humans biologically negatively and adversely affects stock market returns?

Well, there is a slight lag in geomagnetic peaks after solar cycle peaks, as shown below, and this fits well with why we have seen an economic recession follow each solar cycle maximum in the last century - it corresponds to the peak in geomagnetism. Historically, this post-solar-peak period has been one of human apathy and peace. Conversely, the period into the solar peak has been one of human excitability, pro-action and economic inflation, which fits well with stock market gains.

Source: Susan Macmillan, British Geological Survey

Solar Cycle 24 began around December 2008 with a solar minimum and it is predicted to peak in July 2013. An average gain of 70% for the Dow over this period would translate as 14500 by mid 2013 (which would mean a new nominal all time high).A recession has closely followed solar peaks for each solar cycle in the last 100 years. The average recession duration is 1 year. The average length of recession-induced stocks bear markets is 1 year 4 months. As the stock market is forward looking, and a leading indicator, we could therefore find the the stock market peaks around the beginning of 2013 and then declines into the solar peak in mid 2013, and then declines through a recession into 2014.

Dow-Commodities ratios and consumer price inflation should peak at extremes at the solar peak (as has occurred each time in the last century), suggesting commodities should push on all the way into mid-2013 whilst stocks lag in the last few months.  

In summary, there is a correlation between stock market performance and solar cycles. A profitable strategy over the last century would have been to buy at the solar minimum and sell at the next solar maximum, and repeat for an average 70% gain in each instance.

An even more profitable strategy would have been to buy and hold over 2-3 decades in between 3 specific half solar cycles. This strategy would have produced 10-fold gains each time, and pattern continuation suggests such a repetition from the solar minimum at the end of 2008 looking out to the 2030s, in line with a further secular stocks bull.

Looking shorter term to the solar peak around mid-2013, stocks should track yet higher, and this implies commodities much higher, as an extreme relative pricing of commodities over stocks should be reached around that solar peak, before a secular inversion.

John Hampson, April 2011 @ www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article27341.html

Sunspots, GDP & the Stock Market | Theodore Modis

 

Reference:
Theodore Modis: Sunspots, GDP & the Stock Market.
In: Technological Forecasting & Social Change 74 (2007) p. 1508–1514

DJIA vs Sunspots

Periods of solar prominence (sunspots) pour forth energy, causing all earthly activities to increase, including stock market trading. The usual result of this stimulus is a major market turning point, either up or down.

Increased sunspot activity occurs whenever the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are on the same side of the Sun as the Earth. The greatest influence of all this tidal-like force occurs when Jupiter and Venus are in a helio-centric line-up with the Earth at 00, 450, and 900, but lesser activity produces the well-known Dow cycles of 89 weeks, 124 weeks, and 208 weeks.

A very good illustration of this market indicator occurred on October 19, 1987, when the market dropped 505 points. Jupiter was exactly opposite the Sun, increasing solar flares and market timing--thus forcing a market turning point. Another example is October 27, 1997, when Jupiter was square the Sun.

Helio-centric aspects to the Sun mark major market turning points, both up and down. Certain aspects are especially powerful and will influence the market for five to seven days. Examples of powerful benevolent aspects are Jupiter or Venus in aspect to Uranus, Sun, or Mercury. Powerful negative aspects are Saturn to any planet and Mars to anything except Venus and Jupiter. 

Flux is a measure of the energy output of the sun, and is an excellent indicator of overall solar activity levels.  It is associated with the 11-year sunspot cycle, but it varies a whole lot on a daily basis, as the chart illustrates.  

So why could it be that rising solar flux would lead to rising stock prices, and vice versa?   That is the deep and possibly troubling question.  Some people have theorized that the fluctuations in the amounts of charged particles hitting the wiring in our brains can affect collective moods, just as they can affect electrical power grids and microcircuitry.  That's as good of an explanation as any.  I usually operate on the philosophy that if the correlation is good enough, no explanation of the root cause is necessary. 

Here is something more to chew on: Perhaps it is not the radio flux that is really doing the job of affecting our brains' wiring, but rather the spikes in solar flares that seem to arise out of the low points in radio flux.

The next chart looks at the counts of "S Class" solar flares. One can see that the biggest spikes in the numbers of these flares tend to coincide with meaningful bottoms for stock prices.  Those spikes also happen to arrive at minimum points for total radio flux, as if the surge in solar flares kicks off the next rising phase for that measure of solar activity.  The DJIA's rise up out of the minor price bottom on Dec. 19, 2011 coincided with an upward surge in the number of these S-Class flares.  Other spikes in flares in 2011 have also coincided with important lows, although not all price lows have flare spikes to explain them.www.mcoscillator.com

When a CME hits the Earth's Magnetic Field | Al Larson

A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field at 0617 UT on Jan. 22nd. At first the impact did not appear to be a strong one: the solar wind speed barely lifted itself to ~400 km/s when the CME passed by. Now, however, in the wake of the CME, a dense and increasingly geoeffective solar wind stream is blowing arround Earth, setting the stage for possible auroras on the night of Jan. 22nd.  

Reference:

Al Larson aka Hans Hannula, Astrophysics & Chaos (Mar 30 1999).