An interesting article on Fortune that caught my attention highlighted that some young investors are turning to astrology and tarot cards for guidance in day trading. They assert that stock market movements correlate with the cyclical patterns of planets and the moon.
For Generation Z, astrology offers a form of inner clarity similar to religion, particularly in the context of evolving identities. Who knows, I might consider incorporating astrology into my work too sometime in the future.
Here is a section:
While it’s often said that fortune favors the bold, a new crop of young investors believe it’s all about knowing when the stars are aligned.
So they’re banking on tarot cards, lunar cycles, and astrology to earn money day trading.
The idea is that everything from the whims of the stock market to the rotation of the planets is cyclical.
“What’s astrology? It’s like predicting something based off of past events that like something else is going to happen. That’s all trading is. Predicting something is going to happen, or something is going to do something a certain way based off of past events in the market because the market repeats itself,” a social media influencer and trader who goes by “TJR” said in a video on TikTok. “So yeah, I guess you could say I’m kind of into astrology.”
That means there are good times to make trades and times when it’s better to hold off. “Astrological symbolism does resonate with world events,” a TikToker who goes by “MAREN” said in a video she posted. She explains the correlation between the lunar cycle and crypto markets. “I tend to long the full moon and short the new moon,” she said, adding, “not financial advice just my strategy.”
Older generations may balk at using pseudoscientific practices to guide financial decisions. For Gen Z, though, astrology is mainstream.
The pandemic fueled a loss of geographically rooted or religious identity, which has led to a rise in mobile and fluid chosen identities, Paige Doherty, a founding partner at Behind Genius Ventures, told Business insider.
That’s one of the reasons she believes astrology apps like Co-Star or The Pattern have had staying power among younger users.
So relying on astrology, tarot cards, or some other method of divination is, in some sense, an act of faith.