Niels
Welcome to Top Traders Unplugged, where my goal is to give you the clarity, confidence and courage you need to invest like or invest with some of the top traders in the world. As mentioned, this episode is different in a number of ways. I ask you to bear with me and to be open-minded and to be ready for an additional element to the show that I have never done before. I'm not going to spoil the surprise just yet. If this is the first episode you've heard, you might want to go back and listen to many of the earlier conversations. Before we go any further, let's find out who's on today's show.
Mahendra
Hi, this is Mahendra Sharma, and you're listening to Top Traders Unplugged.
Niels
Thank you for doing that Mahendra. Now let's get started with part one of my conversation. I hope you will enjoy it.
Mahendra, thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciate your time.
Mahendra
Thank you.
Niels
Now, Mahendra, you are completely different to the guests that I usually have on my podcast in a number of ways. Let me try and explain this. In the past 25 years, I've been working with an investment strategy that is predicated on the notion that no one can predict the future, and especially the future moves of financial markets. In the past seven months, I've had the pleasure of having some of the smartest and most successful traders in the world on my podcast. They all, except for one, have one thing in common, namely that they spend their time not making predictions about where the markets are going, but rather researching and defining rules and building software that simply react to the price moves of the markets. They openly admit that they have no clue where the markets are heading.
I will confess that I strongly believe in this perspective and this strategy. But at the same time, a number of years ago I came across the theory of markets moving in cycles. In fact, everything in our lives and perhaps even in the universe as a whole is based on cycles. Time is the only constant out there. I took this research further and I started to study some of the best minds in this field. I have to admit that the notion that it is possible to predict the time periods when markets are going up and when markets are going down. It is possible to do this if you really study hard.
Now, during this research I came across your work. If I'm not mistaken, this is back in 2013. When you came out with your annual predictions for 2014 I stepped up; I bought your book. I thought that this was the best way to find out if you really were able to make accurate predictions about the financial markets. I have to admit I've been blown away by all of your work and the accuracy of your forecast that you make. So I'm very excited to have this conversation with you today which will be very different to my usual format as we, instead of talking about investment methodologies and strategies and concepts, are going to talk about the markets themselves in very specific terms. We're going to share some of your predictions for 2015 in many of these markets. We're also going to try to cover some of the major sectors as well as the overall world events and what you see happening in the coming years, which I think many of our listeners will be stunned to hear. Frankly, many will probably be very skeptical about this concept. But let's see if we can't convince a few of them to open their mind about your methodology and the fact that you have indeed, for more than a decade, made predictions about financial markets and world events that have been very, very accurate.
Before we jump into the details I want to ask you a very simple question. Here is a question that I try to ask all my guests and it goes something like this: If you meet someone for the first time, someone you don't know and they don't know you at all and they ask you what you do, how do you explain that? How do you explain what you do Mahendra?
Mahendra
Yes, very interesting, I tell them that I just try to read human behavior patterns, and I try reading those human behavior patterns that are important, especially for the financial markets. I try to read them regarding what most of the fund managers or the bankers, or the institutions will be doing. Then I follow my work with staying connected with them.
Niels
Sure, OK, well anyway, let's stay with you for a lot longer because before we get into all the specific stuff, which I'm sure people will be very interested in getting to, I want to understand your story. I want to get to know you much better. So please go back as far as you can really, and tell me about you as a kid. How did you get into all of this financial astrology?
Mahendra
As a kid I started my career in school in India. When I was nine years old, my grandfather lost his eyesight. He was an astrologer, and I was just helping him to read charts because he lost his eyesight, and I was helping him. When I turned thirteen somebody came from South Africa - a guy that my grandfather didn't know well, and I read his chart and he said, "Mahendra, have you heard about Nostradamus?"
I said, "No, who is this guy?"
I was living in a village in India in the interior part. I never learned anything about the English. So he said, "Mahendra, he used to predict the future. He predicted so many events on this planet."
That was the life changing moment for me, and I said, "Oh WOW! I want to see the future. I want to learn how to see the future."
That was a moment of change for me. I wanted to see into the future. I started learning. I started creating my own chart, own theory that I worked for many, many years on. Finally, when I was twenty, I came out with one prediction because I saw all the geo-cosmic and the astro cycles (astronomically) they all are going to a "not best" place. With this "not the best" indication, I said, "Yeah, this is the USSR, and this is a negative combination. So I predicted that this current problem and this whole continent or the country will break down into its different parts. So I came out with the predictions that the USSR would collapse, and Mikhail Gorbachev would lose his job.
An article came out in Kenya in 1991, and it was just coincidence that the article came out, and after 72 hours the USSR disintegrated. It divided into the smaller countries, and Mikhail Gorbachev lost his job.
Everybody started searching around who was this guy who predicted about this? Then the media started writing about me. Very honestly, I'm telling you that people don't have a great respect for astrology. Though I had a great respect and great love from the people, but still, in who I was, I was not really happy. People said, "Oh Mahendra predicted this! Oh, Mahendra predicted this!" But I was not able to change the world. I was not able to change anything. I was just simply predicting. There was no effect and no ability to divert any of the negative impact. So my predictions were useless. These predictions didn't really matter even though I predicted something that really happened.
I used to get too busy in life, but then I said, "No, I want to change it to impact how people can benefit from my work, rather than my just predicting an event happening and that's it." So that's when I said, If I am able to predict the financial market trend, then if people follow me, my close people and myself, we can start making money. Then I created the Wave Nature Cycle Theory. All the financial markets are connected with the cycles. I did some research covering 70, 80 years, and I was able to find a main master key in that star cycle and that master key, I said, "Unh Hunh! This is going to work!"
In 1996, I came out with a technological market prediction that I saw a huge internet and technology euphoria coming. I invested myself, I think $16,900 or $17,000 in the tech stocks. I'm telling you today that I made a fortune. I made a couple of million dollars, and I was able to predict that euphoria ending caustically and the internet stocks crashing badly in 1999. So I started recommending people stay away from the tech stocks after October 1999. I sold my portfolio. My people at that time, I never used to have members, but I used to have personal clients and close people so they also sold many of them. Not everyone did, but many of them sold the tech stocks and when technology started crashing, and they were so happy and they said, "Mahendra, what is next?" I said, "No, no, let's wait. I think I'm going to write a book about what is going to happen."
That book was the first book, and it was purely inspired by Nostradamus. He wanted to see the future, or he saw it. He was trying to read the future, whereas I was just purely focusing on the financial market future and what was going to happen. That's how my first book came out. I launched it in South Africa, Johannesburg. The first book had predictions of "buy gold", "buy silver", "buy commodities", oil, "sell US dollars." So I think because South Africa and the gold community that book became suddenly very popular in that country.
Then a few people in the US started writing about my book. Everybody started searching around who is this guy who has been predicting all these events and was correct about techs and now he's predicting gold is going to $1600 when the gold was $274, and silver was going to $50. Everybody got excited and looking for me, and that's when I came out with my website and started writing about the financial market. Then I predicted... most of the people, those who follow my blog, the gold did go to $1600, and silver almost touched $50. I predicted oil to go to $100, which happened. There are many cycles, including seven-year cycles. These predictions can last seven, to nine, to twelve-year cycles, and these are cycles that my theories are base on. I knew that by 2012, gold or the metal cycle and the oil cycle would end. The oil cycle ended in seven years. The dollar, after 2012, because 2012 ended a twelve-year cycle, so I recommended not to buy any other currencies after 2012 because I saw that anytime after 2012 there would be a bottom out for the US dollar, and it would start rising. In 2006, I was very negative on the housing market and the US stock market and the global stock market. The crash came in 2008. Then in 2009 I was with Jack (Bouroudjian) on the CNBC radio, and I was fortunate that I was able to predict the bottom of the market at 7,000 on March 2009. I predicted in that interview that the DOW would be hitting 32,000, and Jack said, "Mahendra! Mahendra! Stop! Stop! You're saying that the DOW will hit 32,000?"
I said, "Yes, Jack, the Dow will go to 32,000." That was the most drastic thing about that interview because the DOW was at 6,700, and it was collapsing and there was a very gloomy outlook. Lehman Brothers was already closed down. AIG was having big issues. These were very gloomy days. He says, "WOW!, OK so we're going to watch you very closely."
It has been a very interesting journey if you ask me, from 1996 to 2014, it has been a very interesting journey. Who says that nobody can predict the market trend, or that nobody can predict the future of the market? I think there aren't that many people. I'm not saying that I am the only one. There are many people who are able to read the market very, very closely. They can feel it. We are all human beings connected with each other. It's very simple really if somebody is following the full moon; it's very simple. It can really guide you really, really well, but you have to create a theory, and then you can connect with it. You have to plug it in.
If my computer is here and my electric plug is there, until I make the connection they both are useless. As soon as you connect them the lights pop up on my computer and everything is working fantastic. The computer was there, but I can't use it until I plug it in. In the same way people can see, people can read the future, or they can see what exactly is going to happen, but you have to plug in. I was just one of the fortunate of the fortunate that I was able to plug in with the future. It's very simple. It's not like it's something that is a mystery.
If you ask me - my personal opinion, because I am also an investor. I also invest in the market. If you ask my personal opinion, "Mahendra, do the astro cycles really work with the financial markets?" I will say 1000% they do. This subject is so closely connected that each and every incidence - you can figure it out. Unfortunately, we are human beings, and we have a very limited time in life. In 24 hours you have to sleep, you have to do your person activity - you have to eat food, you have to give time to your wife, you have to give time to your children. When you have time - 1, 2, 5 hours you can just focus on limited things. This subject is so huge, so vast, that I am not able to see each and every moment. I was not able to see last week's Swiss franc move. I was not able to see that, I'm telling you honestly. I never predicted that the Swiss franc was going to move 2000 points, though I predicted so many key events so far in the last 18, 19 years in my financial astrologer career.
Sometimes you miss the move, but then if you miss it, you can still connect to that move. Now what will be the future for the Swiss franc? I think overall, when you are looking at the bigger picture through the astro cycles, you can really see that your investment is going to make you money or not. These cycles can definitely guide you. OK, you just stay with the stock market, or from the 2002 or 200. If we'd just stayed with the gold until 2012, you definitely made money. That's what these cycles teach us: where to make money and where not to invest. Since 2012, I have not been very positive on the gold. In 2013 and 2014 I was very negative on the gold and people lost money. I simply told them don't love gold. Don't give it personal feeling. Just stay away and the time will come again and then you can again start buying gold, but at this time in 2013 and 2014 it's not good for the gold, not good for the silver, and not good for the mining stocks. Just stay away. Hold your cash if you don't trust any other financial instrument, just hold your cash and then the time will come again to buy in and look at it. If they stayed away from the gold and silver, they saved huge amounts of money. Those who kept investing and kept investing, they never achieved success. It is very important to respect the cycles and not get carried away with your emotions.
Niels
Sure, I agree with that, and I think that you gave a very good recap of some of the things that you have been involved in predicting in the past. Before we leave your childhood, I just have one or two questions, because I think it's so important to understand the background before you understand the output. I wanted to ask you two things. One is what do you think was the most important thing that your grandfather taught you in order to really become an expert? I don't think that there are that many out there who have the same track record as you do, so that's one question. The other question is, you shared with me, before we started today, that you come from a household where you didn't have electricity until the age of 13 or 14, and, therefore, no television or anything like that. So for me it's a big leap to go from a childhood like that and suddenly you're dabbling in financial markets and so on and so forth, so how did the financial markets come into your life in the first place? That's clearly become a very important part of your life today.
Mahendra
These are very interesting questions you ask me. If you know my history, I would just like to say here that until the age of 13 I used to walk to school six miles a day, going and coming back, every day. We had no televisions, no phones. In all honestly we had no computers. These were all things we dreamed of for us. We had no electricity. Electricity came to our village in 1982, 1983... 1982 I think, so we had no electricity.
I had a vision. I was always looking into the future because my grandfather made my chart when I was two days old, and he said that this boy is going to become a future leader. My grandfather never traveled internationally. He was just between Bombay and my village, and he said that I would travel internationally, and I would achieve a good name. I asked myself, ow did he predict this? Predictions motivate me. How I became world famous, and he predicted that... sometimes the predictions also play a key role in motivation. I tell you today this is a very smart subject we are discussing in life and on this podcast that each and everyone on this planet - six million people - each and everyone, they have something unique in their life. They have a unique quality in their life. Until they find what they have unique in it until you go down that road... the day that you find it... OK this is your calling, you want to become an actor and you have this quality and then you will suddenly see the guy coming from the street and he becomes his own actor or the singer, or the market trader, or the great Entrepreneur. Each and everyone has something... Or somebody becomes a writer... Like you started this podcast. So each and everyone has something very special. Each and everyone gives something very special. If they are able to unlock that door, then I think they go, and their energy is supported, and they keep walking.
The same thing happened with me. When I came to Mumbai at the age of 14 to study with my grandfather, it just opened my whole world and I wanted to predict like Nostradamus did. Then, as I mentioned, I didn't want to become just a predictor. I wanted people to be able to take advantage of what I see and that's when I said, if people are happy, if people make money, then... If you're making money, if you are doing really well, then definitely you will support other people or the community, or the neediest people. Life will be good, and it will be a happy environment. If somebody is suffering, then that means there is so much pain, and the pain can disturb a person's personal life and all those things. I think, normally, generally, if you ask me, my concept is for people to make money and remain happy and then make other people or the needy happy.
Money plays a most central role in life. We like it, or we don't like it. Many people say that money is not important. I think, in this world, money is very important. I'm not trying to make people go greedy and make money. Money is controlled by the planet Jupiter. All money has its own identity. The sun gives us heat and light, which is your soul. The moon and the planets give you emotions, thinking. Mars is your defense, your willpower, you confidence. Mercury is your intellect, your intelligence you know. Jupiter, in your life, gives you the spiritual or how good of a person you are. Venus gives you dreams, luxury, and all those things. Saturn is like a judgment it helps you in admitting judgments. Also in astrology we believe that Jupiter plays... If we put all these planets into the financial system, Jupiter controls the financials market - the money part. It is very important. Mars controls the technology. If you want to see the internet and the technology stock you have to follow Mars movement very, very closely. You will get 100% results. There is no doubt. If someday were to say, "Mahendra, we got a 90% result." I would say no, you have to get 100% results because these are the certain factors that I discovered and they work so well, so well. Like in 1996 when I came out with the technology bull market, it was a "miracle prediction" though it was my first prediction. It was a miracle prediction that people made a fortune on.
So in life, not only the financial astrology works, but also who is reading, how he is thinking because those same planets and positions are at work on them. Thousands of other people also read all the same technical charts - 10,000 or 100,000 read them, but everyone's view is different. The same numbers that are in a company's annual report are read differently. Everybody has a different way of seeing things, you know. The same way, also in astrology, they read the chart, but how you connect is completely dependent on you. Given that same chart, somebody will say, oh technology will crash, and some people will say technology will rise, so it also depends on each individual because we are six billion people or more than six billion people, and we are all different from each other. We are unique by nature. So this objective is wise (requires discernment). It is not like we can just put in 10, 20, 30 hours to create a forecast. It is a huge subject, and each step can be talked about. In short, today I want just to focus on the financial market and how people can make money in 2015 and what I see in 2015. If what I see comes true, then definitely your followers and those who are listening to this podcast are going to do well.
So far, my theory has not given me the wrong indications and has not provided the wrong indications. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that in 2015 this podcast and this interview is going to help many people.
Niels
I'm sure it will. I'm glad you made that point because that was one of my questions. With regards to financial astrology or how you read these charts, it's kind of like a technical analyst. You can give them the same chart and they have different conclusions. So I think that's very important to make that point that obviously the way you read the same information might give a different prediction or different outcome than other people.
But first, and I'm serious here, about this a word from our sponsor. Before we get into the sponsor, should say that my goal with this whole podcast is to be as transparent as possible including these ads. So let me just lay out first how I ended up with a sponsor, or perhaps I should say a potential sponsor. So this is how it's going to work. This is my ad music. When you hear this music, this is the part that may result in the podcast generating some income. Let me just turn the music down while I share this part. When I put the ad right here in the middle of the conversation the chances of you hearing, it is much greater. OK, let's put the music back up again.
As I mentioned in my introduction, doing a promotion of a product is new for me, and I don't really know what the right format is. As I don't want to just read a text that someone asked me to read, so bear with me for a second. The product that I want to support is the Mahendra's 2015 Financial Predictions book because I truly believe it will help you navigate the markets in the coming months and years. As I mentioned, I bought this book last year, and I was blown away by the results. Instead of just hearing my opinion, after all, I'm being incentivized to do this, I believe you should hear the independent opinion from one of Mahendra's long time subscribers. His name is Ralph and the other day I gave him a call to ask a few questions.
Ralph
I think it's like a weather service. Most of us in the morning you look at the weather and so you know how to dress in the winter if it's going to be snowy or if in summer, if you're expecting a thunderstorm I think this is pretty much the same way of looking at these kinds of services, if you are open minded enough. It helps you be guided. At the end of the day, you still have to make your own decisions, but it gives you maybe an overall picture of what one can expect from the days ahead.
Niels
There will be occasions where he's wrong, how does he inform you as a client that this is not working out if I can ask it that way? How do you avoid losing too much money on the things that don't work out.
Ralph
Actually this is what I like about Mahendra's work. He puts it down; he writes, "Sorry, now this has happened. I made a mistake, or I have made a wrong assessment. The situation is different, and I was wrong, FULL STOP." That's the way he communicates, which has... it's a bold move, but at the end of the day somebody admits that he has been wrong on something, it's much better than to try to hide it and say, "Oh yeah, it will come," or this or that. At the end of the day, like I said, there is no 100% guarantee.
What is much more important is sometimes the way to understand Mahendra's work. What I have learned over the last few years is that he has a great understanding of our world and what's happening in the market. Now what I noticed a little bit is that sometimes it's hard to see how much, and how fast something can happen. For example the best example over the last few months being the drop in the oil price at over $100, $110. Mahendra was right in that oil would come down to $30 to $40 and this will happen over the next 1 to 2 years, and now it has happened that oil came down to $43 basically within six or eight months from the point of his predictions. This is something where the timing has an aspect to it which sometimes even he is surprised that some of the predictions come into truth much faster than what he has anticipated. Overall the important thing is that nobody was buying oil at $110 when he says this is going to turn.
Niels
Are there any other things that you buy from him or subscribed from him that you use that you found particularly useful?
Ralph
I'm a subscriber to his weekly newsletter as well as to the daily and actually one of the first things that I do in the morning as a part of drinking a cup of coffee is reading what he is saying. Sometimes, of course, not much is happening overnight. That means, for example, currently he says that the interest rates in the states eventually will turn up, and the bond market might look different in six months from now. This is not something that happens overnight. But if you read the same thing over and over again, then you say this is really, this is going the same with the oil, the same with currencies, which over the last few weeks, especially in Switzerland has been very, very important.
Niels
Well, there you have it, an honest opinion with which I would like to ask you to buy the 2015 Financial Predictions by going onto TOPTRADERSUNPLUGGED.COM/MS2015. Remember, when you do buy it a small percentage goes to the show, and it helps me so that I can keep bringing you all these great guests and content to you. Go check it out and tell him I sent you. Go to TOPTRADERSUNPLUGGED.COM/MS2015, and now back to the conversation.
I want to ask you, obviously we are going to go into the specifics, but I want to ask you a couple of questions beforehand. You use astro-indicators to understand investor’s behavioral patterns and their actions. You call this Wave of Nature. You also talk about cycles. The time cycles themselves, are they really related to the planetary part that you mentioned, or are they kind of separate, because a lot of people study cycles, but they don't necessarily study the astrological aspect of it, if I understand it correctly. So is it the combination of the two that makes you unique? You talk about different time cycles for financial markets and one would think that OK, if the cycles are the cycles in time, it doesn't really matter about where Mercury is, or where Saturn is, but it does for you. Can you explain the relationship between the time cycles themselves and the astrological part if I can call it that? I have to admit I'm not expert here, so I might be using terminology that is completely wrong, so please do correct me when I do that.
Mahendra
Here are the key factors... So many key factors combine when I make my final predictions, or when I come out with my final predictions, in the long term especially. In my theory, I give the most importance to the human behavior factor. We all know, and we are all aware that the sun gives heat and light, so definitely the heat comes back from the sun. Because of the moon, high tide and low tide comes. We humans, we have over 70% water in our body, so definitely this impacts our thinking a behavior pattern every day. We are all the same: you are the same, I am the same through our lives except for aging. The behavior pattern in the 24 hours keeps changing. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes we are relaxed, sometimes we are just sad or depressed. We just keep changing. We are not the same, so we are a human being. We are not made like computer robots that just follow instructions. No, we are human beings, and we are connected to nature. We are alive because of the air, water, light, (earth, fire)... the five elements.
So we are human beings so definitely our actions produce results. If we try to judge our actions... it supports tomorrow... let's say the market is doing very well - It supports tomorrow. In my theory the human behavior pattern, gravity, and the planetary movement... Planetary movement is going to give you the overall picture. So yeah, it just impacts the human behavior pattern. Any statement we may just go to a holding the stock. They may start selling If some exciting news comes out; they may start buying. The behavioral factor is for the shorter term cycle. Just what is under the shorter term cycle, not for the longer term. Human behavior cannot give a clear prediction for the longer term. Definitely human behavior patterns can go for the shorter term, and that's how the media can play in. Normally the media plays a most important role, like CNBC or any other media. They give the outlook, and their view can impact the market trend. Any analyst coming out with an upgrade or a downgrade, or any central bank making decisions - very important decisions - these things can push the market maybe 48 hours or 72 hours in a direction and then everyone starts analyzing what comes next.
So that's how the human behavior pattern works. It keeps changing without remaining stable. It keeps changing with the market news or any important statement. So I try to read that, and that you can very accurately read by the moon cycle because the moon is the one planet that changes every 59 hours. The second important thing I see when I read Moon changes or when I try to predict is that there are only twelve zodiac signs. So let's say we are 500 million people on this planet connected to this financial market. 500 million people you divide by the 12 because there are the 12 zodiac signs. So normally each zodiac sign represents a common behavior pattern. People with the same zodiac sign have a few things very common, so their actions will also be common.
So you divide the 500 million people into the 12. So I think that remains then around 42 million or somewhere in there. The 42 million people will have close to similar action. Then in my cycle theory I divide the 42 million into 109 parts. Because I created my theory and each moon cycle, I divide into nine more cycles. So it goes now to 3 million people. Then the 3 million people's actions will be almost the same. So the 3 million people will be shorting the Euro. The 3 million people will be constantly shorting the Euro, and their action will be quite similar. Then maybe the others with that sign will also be the same, but there will be many people going short. They will be, "Now Euro can bounce back here." Some will say, now the Euro has bottomed out here. Some will say that now the European markets have started looking better, and the European countries have started doing better and they will start. So it's the same Euro but everyone has a different view.
So I try to take the important thing and find the middle way. When you weigh something, that is a middle way, and that can guide me by the overall combinations of the planetary movement. The planetary movement better drives the human behavior - how they will be thinking. This is treated like a hurricane. So how is it like a hurricane? I'll tell you it's very simple. When I came out with the 2001 buying gold prediction, I directed people to buy gold and silver and buy oil. At that time, I still remember hardly any newspaper used to write articles on gold. There were not many websites on this planet talking about buying gold and gold letters. There was hardly any big media. They were not talking every day about gold and mining stocks and everything. But the momentum started. That's when the story started getting into it. People started writing more about gold.
Then in 2007, 2008, 2009, especially 2007 when the gold was in a bull market and in 2011. The people, everyone on this planet you received emails and it was all about the gold, gold, gold. So that's what happens. It's like a huge hurricane blow. That's how the people get involved. What I do. I try to just do this study of where will be the next hurricane, or what will be the next cycle and where will people get involved. Like in the 2009 on the 26th of February, when I gave an interview to Jack (Bouroudjian), and he's still on my backside for my prophesy. For the Jack interview (I explained) to Jack that it was very, very clear that the market was bottoming out and that it was going to 32,000 because I saw something very important, very clearly. It was like a dead-end and from there slowly the market would start moving up, and then the hurricane would start. And it is slowly, slowly happening. Still the DOW hasn't reached 32,000 but I am very confident that the DOW will hit 32,000. My job is to just find where the next hurricane cycle will be. Where will the cycle start and how people will get involved. So then 100,000 people will get involved, and then the 1 million will get involved. They will be talking about the same thing... I saw when the tech bubble started in 1996; this would be a cycle where the millions of people would get involved. Media would get involved. Everyone would get involved, and this would be something very big.
When Facebook started... Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook, and it was one simple page to cover all his people to communicate.
Niels
Can I interrupt you there. I have two questions. You just brought up Facebook, and I can't help asking you. I seem to have read somewhere, and it's nothing to do with what we're going to be talking about - 2015. But I seem to have read somewhere, and I think it's from you that at some point Facebook is actually not going to be worth anything.
Mahendra
Yes, yes.
Niels
I mean that's a very radical... this is a good example, this is a great example actually. This like coming out in 2001 saying gold is going to go to $1600. You're coming out in 2015 saying at some point Facebook is going to be worthless. Can you give us an indication of what year we're talking about here?
Mahendra
You know, before I give such a big statement I think we have to go through why I predicted that event.
Niels
OK, ok.
Mahendra
When Facebook announced their public offering. That public offering, the astral cycle was so negative that I commented to all my clients, all my members, all my followers not to buy Facebook on the listing. I advised staying away from this stock. Then the stock started correcting, and it started falling, falling, falling, and I think it ran down to $16 from $42. In one of the letters (because I write a daily and weekly letter) I mentioned that this stock was ripe because the negative astral cycle had started. So when that one cycle has ended then one can buy the stock, and you can make some money.
Definitely it will be a challenging time. I don't know, maybe somebody will come out with a better platform or somebody will come out with a better company or this whole thing will be... If you ask me, Facebook is really going to have a very difficult cycle, according to my asto-indicators, a very difficult time cycle. I think in 2017, I think between January and May 2017 it will be a very interesting time for Facebook and the company. If something negative is coming they should be taking care, otherwise this company is going to go back to $1 or $10. So it is just a time cycle. How the time cycle effects how one is and can be, and a need to do or implement rather than ignoring. So I think yes, there will be a very, very interesting time and very big challenges I see this in my asto. I love Mark Zuckerberg, I love Facebook, it is nothing that I have something...
Niels
No, of course not.
Mahendra
In my life I just predict what I see. I never include any personal feeling. If I put my personal feelings in then my predictions will be much less. I'm telling you today. So I have to predict independently. I give genuine advice. That's the reason I'm giving genuine advice that 2017 will be a challenging time for Facebook and very challenging, and it looks like the worst news will hit Facebook. If something challenging happens and Facebook management sees the challenges coming in 2017, then they will act. If they don't act, if they don't diversify, then I think it will be a disaster for the company. We're going to watch, and this is a very important statement I'm making here and we're going to watch it.
Niels
Sure, absolutely. Now just before we dive into really 2015 because I think people at this stage really will be craving for hearing what you have to say about the coming year. I just want to ask you one thing, when you sat down on CNBC in March of 2009 at the low, saying the DOW is going to go from here - 6,700, to 32,000. I understand now, better, that you're predicting these waves and the waves are human behavior and these waves create trends because more and more people change their opinion and therefore they will end up... it's like their following the crowd and that's creating the trend - more and more people going in the same direction. I understand the concept of that and, in a sense, I guess that's why trends occur and as a trend follower myself, I truly believe in that. However, what I'm not so clear on right now is how do you get to 32,000? That doesn't... how do you get the levels that you're looking for?
Mahendra
As I said, there are 5 times, 7 times, 12 times... so I think that the low of 6,700 was happening at the time of the interview. So of course I targeted 5 times because that was the cycle. I just gave them 32,000 because the interview was on the 26th of February and on that interview I predicted that the 7th of March market would bottom out. So there was still eight or nine days, or seven days spending. But that was a very volatile cycle. Nobody knew what would happen tomorrow. It was a disaster. I was looking at each and every stock on my computer: commodities and currencies, and indexes on my computer. I did physically took 6,400 or around that... the DOW can go down to 6,400 and multiply that (times the five year cycle) and it comes to the 32,000. So I did the 32,000 number. The next cycle when it really starts, after the disaster, the next one will be in the 9 mode, and then finally 12 mode and then again it will restart . This cycle started because 20 years, purely based on the "second". The second remains in the one house for the 2 1/2 years. To complete a whole one zodiac cycle, it's 12 zodiac cycles times 2 1/2 years it comes to 30 years. So that's what makes the amount. The cycle can stay for any market, any indices, or in technology where there are revolutions coming or indices with revolutions coming or agriculture with revolutions coming, or... They all can grow in that one pattern and then change it.
In 1942 that was a... One cycle remained there. That most uncertain cycle and a big food cycle people died, there was the killing and the people were getting killed in the war it was a horrific time cycle from 1910 to 1942 or 1943. So if cycles... if constancy is important 30 years this will be born, you know. So I think there is a technological revolution, which I predicted in 1996. If you take it 30 years, 2026 will be the second revolution. 1995 was the beginning of the first five-year cycle. Technology crashed. Technology is back again now, you know. It meant that was not the... I said to many of my close friends that technology they were going to be rebound again. The time is coming soon. So you the cycle was not ended. So in '26, so in '36 this technology revolution cycle is going to end and then a new cycle will start and that will be my cycle for all the robotic things.
Niels
Yeah, sure.
Mahendra
In the medical field, in the driving industry, in everything will be automatic systems. That is coming soon. Now we have a computer, and we are doing it manually and slowly, slowly work is going away now ... So next we'll be set on the robotic era. Like automatic everything. Like a human in government, we will get less because that will be the new revolution that will come. I think the 30-year cycle when anybody thinks... Any revolutions or anything that is locked for the 30 years, then the new changes have to come.
Niels
Sure. So I'm going to have to wait another ten years or so before they invent the robot that can iron my shirts in the morning I guess. At least it's coming. Now we really want to get into this, but this is fascinating. Before I jump into the first area, when you say that the 30-year cycle really is the longest that you see. Is that also why,.. If I'm right now with my limited knowledge, this is why interest rates have to make a low now because it has been 30 years, and they cannot keep moving lower.
Mahendra
Something very interesting has been happening lately. I have been watch markets closely. I predict and I think that billions of dollars are... they follow my words. I have to watch the market closely because I cannot give some nonsense advice to the people. People will dump me. They will forget... So what is happening lately there has been very... Traders and investors they are experiencing a lot of volatility. It's a very volatile time. A sudden drastic move in the interest rate...In the oil, $50 in the oil is a big move in a short span of time. They look at the Euro and the way it is nonstop falling... The way the Swiss franc went down. Look at the Swiss National Bank - the one statement of the Swiss National Bank. So these stop moves started coming like the gold was - $1142, $1275, so these are the sharp moves stock is coming and especially with the interest rates. People are watching closely.
To me I believe that one of the fantastic moves. It supports the people backing higher interest rates. I'll say, if you ask me in my prediction for the second half of 2015 interest rates are going to rise drastically. Jupiter is changing into the fire, after the water. Water is cold, if you put water on the fire, fire heats up the earth, so the nature of water is cold and currently Jupiter is moving into... out of the water house which is Cancer in astrology and this Jupiter will go into the house of Leo, which is the lion or the fire or the sun. So I think those who want to lobby the low interest rates should do it. Low interest rates are ending by June 2015. After 2015 June do not expect interest rates to go gradually up. I expect interest rates to go drastically up in the 2016, 1017 interest rates can go up by more than one point. I think this is the most amazing trend changing pattern that is going to take place. It may take us a few months here and there, but I think I will watch these predictions very, very closely. That is what I have been recommending to my close members to look into these longer rates.
Niels
Sure. I take that on board, and it's a great place to start with the bonds and I think it's very, very interesting that you have these quite extraordinary expectations to what is going to happen. I want to also try and put some numbers on to kind of better understand what it really means. When you say, interest rates are going up drastically. If we have 30-year interest rates at, I'm not even sure what it is right now, but it's 3% 3.5% I think now-a-days in the US. How high do you see them going by the end of 2015, by the end of 2016? When you say drastic what is drastic?
Mahendra
Any cycle starts, as I said always that it starts very slow but then slowly starts going like a hurricane. So hurricane level 1 then hurricane level 2. No, no, no, this is hurricane level 5. Stay away. So if you're like these... and I'm giving you a level five hurricane, by end of 2015 definitely everyone will be convinced that interest rates are going higher. Rising... definitely hurricane is coming - hurricane level 1. In 2016 hurricane will take place... People will say no, this is just a temporary state of the hurricane, but it will get stronger so we have to be staying in the house. Then what will come in 2017, it will be a very fast move this trending. We're are going to take a drastic move. Everybody expecting Ok, Ok there is still the problem in the Euro where the economy will slowly be recovering. It is not doing what it's supposed to do. And not what the central bank is expecting. But this drastic move is going to surprise everyone on this planet. 2016, 2017 especially 2017. I think it can go to 6%, 7%.
Niels
Wow, yeah, that is very significant for sure. So anyway, that was a great place to start. Let me go back to where I originally wanted to start because I think a lot of people really are focused significantly on what's going on in the stock markets. So I think stock markets is a nice... since we are leaving the interest rates let me just job back and ask you one thing. The prediction here about interest rates going up to these kinds of levels, are you just talking about the US, or this is Europe as well?
Mahendra
Everywhere, everywhere. In fact, you were going to see also it affect Japan in 2017. They will be raising interest rates.
Niels
Then here's just a question. How come we're going to see that pattern occurring now when what we've seen so far in a place like Japan is that they've had low-interest rates for, I don't know, a decade, 15 years, I can't remember now? Is there something different between the way you look at things in terms of country by country because the US and Europe haven't really had low-interest rate environments as long as Japan, but now suddenly everything is changing. How come they've suddenly become in sync if I can put it that way?
Mahendra
I think that the Japan 30-year cycle is ending in 2017, from 1987. So I think, to me, it looks like 2017 Japan... it will be a rebirth of Japan. I think, regarding currency, they are printing money, so this is their final try. When somebody wants to have a final try, they say let's try this one. You put everything in that direction - that last try. I think that somehow this tryout will work for them for the part of three years. I'm not very sure about the level at three years. Definitely the try out is going to work for short of three years. It can work for Japan for two years, but then the problems will be starting in Japan. I don't see a great picture for Japan for the next seven to eight years after two years. So it means after 2025, 2026, I think Japan positive cycle will start. They are going to keep struggling. This, what they are doing right now can help the county's sentiment or the investor sentiment for a maximum of two years but that eventually... Japan will eventually suffer a little bit, or maybe they'll suffer badly in the coming time.
Niels
Yeah, and since we are on the interest rate theme right now I just had one question that I think is related to this that I think people will also be very interested in your view on, and that's really inflation or deflation. Where do you lean? Do you see deflation really taking hold here or do you see inflation coming back due to the money printing?
Mahendra
Yeah, inflation is going to come back. I think that's why I recommended people to buy metals and... middle of 2015 now. In the one interview I gave to the... I said to buy gold after June 2015. So I think I see inflation coming back in 2016, 2017 because clearly Jupiter is supporting the influence and inflation. Jupiter was very negative, now this will change in June, 2015. So I think inflation is coming back. Commodity prices will start rising. There will be easy money available. The stock market will continue to rise. The people will have easy money and they are ready to trade for anything. So this is definitely that we are going to enter into the euphoria time cycle in 2016, 2017, it will be a very euphoria time. In 2016 second half or 2015 second half it will be... you will feel that Mahendra, is this market going to stop now? Like in 1998, nobody had a clue that where the stock market was going to go and where it would end. People said now, and it kept moving higher, in 1999 people said now, and it kept moving higher. It always happens in the financial markets because they are very sensitive by their nature, which is completely controlled by the moon. Very sensitive - gets small news and then boom, the market goes. So I think that is their nature. The financial market's nature is they are very sensitive and when you are very sensitive you fear and then you fear for everything...
Ending
Ready to learn more about the world's top traders? Go to TOPTRADERSUNPLUGGED.COM and sign up to receive the full transcripts of the first 10 episodes of the show and visit the show notes where you can find useful links to other amazing resources. Thanks for listening and we'll see you on the next episode of Top Traders Unplugged.
Today's show is brought to you by Mahendra Sharma, who for the last 13 years has been publishing his annual predictions about the financial and commodity markets and I talked to one of his subscribers Ralph, who told me that he has been a subscriber since 2009, when he came across his information and really found it very valuable.
Ralph
I think it's like a weather service. Most of us in the morning, you look at the weather, and so you know how to dress in the winter if it's going to be snowy. It helps you be guided. At the end of the day, you still have to make your own decisions, but it gives you maybe an overall picture of what one can expect from the days ahead.
Niels
Based on my own experience I encourage you to go to TOPTRADERSUNPLUGGED.COM/MS2015 and order your copy today.