- Some young investors are using astrology and tarot cards to guide day trading decisions.
- They believe stock market behavior aligns with cyclical patterns of planets and the moon.
- Gen Z sees astrology as a form of inner clarity, akin to religion, amid shifting identities.
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, previously 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.
“As I got more into astrology, into tarot, into intuition, all of that, I saw the correlation that I’m not the only one who’s being affected by these energetic influences.” Stefaniya Nova, a 25-year-old astrologer turned day trader, told Fortune.
Nova, who goes by the handle @blonderwitch on TikTok, said in a video that using “intuition and astrology” helped her earn close to $6,000 from trading in May alone.
The rise of star-gazing traders comes amid the rise of “retail investors.” These nonprofessional investors, who trade in small quantities, have surged in number over the past decade.
