|  MAR 1987

In search of the cause of cycles by Hans Hannula, Ph.D.

In search of the cause of cycles by Hans Hannula, Ph.D. People have, for centuries, noticed cycles in many things, including the stock market. My own interest in cycles and their application to the market began in the early 1970s, when I read Dewey and Mandino's Cycles, The Mysterious Forces That Trigger Events and Hurst's The Profit Magic of Stock Transaction Timing. Since then, I have studied cycles and used them regularly in my trading. My greatest successes have been in using them to call the 1982 and 1984 market bottoms. While cycles have been a practical tool for me, I have always been bothered by a lack of understanding of why they occur. Recently, I uncovered significant evidence of the cause of these ""mysterious forces."" Now, many people, such as Peter Eliades, an investment advisor from Los Angeles, have suspected the answer. In response to a Newsweek question about what causes cycles, he said, ""I'm not real sure, and it sounds kind of freaky, but if pushed to the wall I'd have to say it has to do with astronomical configurations that affect behavior on a mass basis."" (See also Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities, December 1986.)

by Hans Hannula, Ph.D., RSA, CTA