Bradley Siderograph Manfred Zimmel (http://www.amanita.at/e/faq/e-bradley.htm; 2002) The Bradley siderograph was developed in the 40ies by Donald Bradley to forecast the stock markets. Bradley assigned numerical values to certain planetary constellations for every day, and the sum is the siderograph. It was originally intended to predict the stock markets. The noted technical analyst William Eng singled out the Bradley as the only 'excellent' Timing Indicator in his book, "Technical Analysis of Stocks, Options, and Futures" (source: Astrikos). It is crucial to understand what the siderograph is about since almost all traders (and even and even financial astrologers!) misunderstand it. Over the decades it has been observed that the siderograph can NOT (!!!) reliably predict the direction but only turning points in the financial markets (stocks, bonds, bonds, commodities) within a time window of +/- 4 calendar days. Inversions (i.e. a high instead of a low and vice versa) are quite common. Also, it is not a timing tool for short-term trends but rather for intermediate-term to longer-term trends because the turning window is +/- 4 calendar days.
The first chart shows the siderograph based on the original formula as applied by Bradley himself ("geocentric" means earthcentered, i.e. from our perspective)
The second chart depicts the siderograph from a heliocentric perspective (calculations based on the position of the sun instead of the earth).
The 360° siderograph distinguishes between applying and separating astrological aspects, i.e. between 120°/ 240° and 90°/ 270°.
The last chart is the 360° heliocentric siderograph.
Perhaps you want to know now which one is the "correct" siderograph - the answer is easy: none. Since Bradley's time dozens of similar models with different paramaters have been created, partly optimized with the aid of artificial intelligence and for specific markets (oil, currencies etc.). A date which occurs in several different models is probably important.
http://www.tradingtutor.com/newsletters/2-21-03.html
Validating Donald Bradley's work on the Siderograph Steven J. Williams (http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/Exchange/9807/Charts/SP500-Articles/SideroWork.htm, 1999)
Validating Donald Bradley's work on the Siderograph¹ was no minor undertaking. For my initial process, I am skipping through all of the detailed descriptions of why planetary alignments appear to have influences on human beings. Astrologer's believe the planets hold mystical and spirtual powers that combine together to uniquely influence individual personality and character traits. What is really missing, is hard scientific evidence that shows what, if any, influences the planets in our solar system have on our individual psyche. One of the features of Bradley's work was the discussion of the 3 1/2 year Business Cycle (41 1/2 months), for which he attributed to the Jupiter-Uranus Aspect Cycle. His claim was whenever Jupiter and Uranus formed specific aspects (or angles) with each other, a specific psychological influence would befall the Earth and affect all human beings to some extent. These influences, Bradley believed, were manefest through ups and downs in the economy as measured by bull and bear campaigns in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). Isolating the 3 1/2 Year Business Cycle The following chart is my reproduction of Bradley's where the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) from 1903 to 1940 is displayed as the oscillation between a 9 month simple moving average and a 41-month simple moving average.
The idea behind this chart is when the U.S. economy is doing well, the oscillator will be above the centerline and when the economy is doing poorly the oscillator will be below the centerline. The magenta symbols show when Jupiter and Uranus form aspects of 120° (trine, triangle) or 60° (sextile, 6-sided star). These aspects are thought to cause positive influences, thus a rise in the economy as reflected in the DJIA. Below the centerline, the blue symbols show when Jupiter and Uranus form aspects of 90° (square, right-angles), 180° (opposition, planets on opposite sides), and 0° (conjunction, both planets are lined up). These aspects are thought to cause negative influences, thus a fall in the economy and a fall in prices on the DJIA. The main difference between Bradley's published chart and mine is that his was drawn by hand and he emphasized some of his oscillation peaks -- mine was done with a charting program, so the information is presented exactly. The charts are similar enough that any minor visual discrepancies should not deter from the intended message. Therefore, Donald Bradley concluded (after much more explanation than what I have presented here), that the Jupiter-Uranus aspects are responsible for the 3 1/2 Year Business Cycle.
Do Planets Influence The DJIA? Bradley displayed charts that showed the Observed Effects of Venus-Uranus Aspects relative to the DJIA. The following are a set of charts made by tracking the historical locations of the 2 planets: Venus and Uranus, and plotting what happened to the DJIA during specific aspects from 1900-1940. I have created
composite charts showing, for example, what happens to the DJIA each time Venus and Uranus are within 12° either side of each major aspect (ie: 90° and 270°, 120° and 240°, 0°, and 180°. All occurances of these aspects are then composited together to show the average of all occurances. These charts show the effects when these two planets for "square" aspects (90° and 270°). I have shown the times when both planets are moving in the same "direct" direction and also when Uranus is move in the retrograde² direction. I find it interesting how the 90° charts are almost identical even though completely different sets of data were used. But, the 270° charts are quite different -- I do not offer an explanation why this is so. Three of the 4 charts have almost identical chart patterns, yet each was created from disjoint sets of data.
Planetary Aspects Why do certain planetary aspects cause psychological changes in humans? There are many theories about this subject, far too deep to discuss in much detail here. For my own visual aid, I think of these aspects in a similar way as I would view 2 overlapping window screens (wire or mesh mosquito netting). When they are lined up perfectly (0°, conjuction) the pattern is very stable. When one screen is turned exactly 90°, the pattern is different, but again very stable. When one screen is moved at a very slight angle from these otherwise stable aspects, the pattern becomes very unstable and you begin to see moire patterns. People who work in print shops are quite aware of this problem when they compose color "negatives" for the printing presses. Color photographs must be created in the darkroom such that each separated color (cyan, magenta, and canary) have its own master negative and its own pattern of "dots". If you look very closely at a printed color photograph, you should see these very tiny dots. The printer must decide how to overlap these 3 color images so the dots will not cancel each other out, but also form a stable pattern. The pattern that works best for printing is one where tiny rosette patterns are formed. The normal angles are: 15° cyan, 75° magenta, 0° canary, and 45° for black. Any moire effects from most other angles would be very undesirable and the printed photograph would appear fuzzy, out of focus, or have noticable moirewaves.
Constructing The Siderograph The basic construction of the Sideriograph requires a complete list of planetary positions for each day (or week, month, etc) to be charted. The angles for all combinations of one planet with each of the others is assembled. If any angle for any combination (except 0° conjunction, discussed below) is within 15° either side of the primary angles (60°, 90°, 120°, and 180°), we would build a composite for each day that would portray each angle as having maximum influence when it is exact and tappering off in strength as it approaches the 15° limit on eaither side. All squares (90° and 270°) and all oppositions (180°) are all considered negative. All sextiles (60° and 300°) and all trines (120° and 240°) are considered positive. Conjunctions are handled separately because this time each planet in combination with another has different influences, as follows: Valency Of Conjunctions Moon Sun Mer Ven Mar Jup Sat Ura Nep Plu Moon + + + + + Sun + + + + + Mercury + + + + + + Venus + + + + + + + Mars Jupiter + + + + + Saturn Uranus + + + Neptune + + + + Pluto + Before we can begin to assemble the plot data for the Sideriograph, there is one more piece of information needed. This is the combined angle of declinations of the planets Mars and Venus. No other planet declinations are used. Once all of the data is assembled for each day, you separate the long-term aspect from the medium-term aspects. Any combination of slower moving planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in aspect to another from this same group of planets, are collectively referred to as "long-term". All other planetary aspect combinations are referred to as "medium-term". The final algebraic formula is as follows: S = W ( L + D ) + M
Where: M is the average of the (m)edium terms, L is the average of the (l)ong terms, D is the (d)eclinations, and W is a factor used to add extra (w)eight to the long-term planets (Bradley suggests W =4). Perform this computation for each day on a chart and plot the connection of all points into a continuous waving line. I highly recommend doing this exercise with the assistance of a computer -- Bradley did all of his research work using mechanical adding machines and pencil & paper. When Bradley presented his work, he demonstrated how the final Siderograph chart would closely track and forecast the DJIA for any time and any timeframe. He used the DJIA chart from 1946 as an example, as follows.
One problem with Bradley's conclusion, was that 1946 was coincidentally a good year to compare the DJIA along with the Siderograph. When the same formulas are applied to other years, the correlation fails to perform as well. In the chart above, the blue box area is the year 1946 which was the example Bradley used as "proof" that the Siderograph could be used to forecast the DJIA. However, as you can see 1945 and 1947 did not track as well.
Useful Application Of The Siderograph Just because rising lines of the Siderograph do not necessarily reflect rising prices in the DJIA, there is one very important benefit in the Siderograph that still remains effective. When the Siderograph makes a change in direction, however minor, it appears that the DJIA also sometimes changes direction exactly at the same moment (+/- 1 or 2 days in most cases). One very good recent example was the mini-crash on October 28, 1997 -- the siderograph correctly predicted the bottom of the sell-off, exactly to-the-day. In his book The Technical Analysis of Stocks, Bonds & Futures³, author William F. Eng considers astronomical cycles as "excellent" in dertrmining turning points in changing markets. Mr. Eng devotes 3 pages to Donald Bradley's Siderograph and provides more descriptive instructions on assembling the calculations of the Siderograph chart.
Notes: ¹Stock Market Prediction - the Planetary Barometer and How to Use It by Donald A. Bradley, 1949. No ISBN available. ²Retrograde: the apparent "backward" motion of a planet, an illusion caused by a geocentric (earth view) of the planets when the elliptical motion of the Earth appears to move faster than another planet, usually while the planet appears to be crossing behind the sun. ³The Technical Analysis of Stocks, Bonds & Futures by William F. Eng, 1988 ISBN 1-55738-003-1.
(http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ellsann/Bradley.html)
