Market Astrology: The Facebook IPO Risk Trade

By Karen Starich

Facebook is set to launch it's initial public offering on May 18th. The social media giant has an initial target valuation as high as $100 billion. Looking at the astrology for May 18th we can get some clues as to how the stock will do, and the potential risks involved with the trade.

Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and Chief Executive at Facebook, recently celebrated his 28th birthday making the Sun's placement in the IPO chart conjoin to his birth Sun. This is a powerful placement for the founder and the company to share in a new creative venture that will carry far into the future.

Looking at the short term trading opportunity for the stock IPO, there are some considerations in the May 18th date that should be taken into account. The strongest aspect for the IPO is a trine with Saturn (steady business model) to Venus in the sign of Gemini (social networking and communications). Venus, however is moving retrograde, and for a corporation's chart could indicate they may have an initial breakdown that they will have to recover from. The positive trine shows the potential to be practical and overcome a potential setback.

The weakest point in the May 18th chart, and the one that could cause the most immediate difficulty, is a sesqui-square (135 degree angle) between Jupiter (the planet of expansion) and Pluto (the planet of covert agendas). The aspect suggests there could be inconsistent and abrupt changes in business acquisitions that could involve the company in red tape and lead to investor uncertainty. Recently Facebook made two acquisitions, Instagram and Microsoft patents, totally over $1.5 billion. According to some reports the Instagram deal was the sole brainchild of Zuckerberg's, and the board's approval was basically “symbolic” after the deal was already done. As of the IPO date the deal with Instagram remains open while the FTC completes a review of the takeover. This could bring some setbacks to the company's stock the first week of June when there could be negative news regarding the company's possible over extension and over expansion that could be viewed as a credit risk. Jupiter is also inconjunct Saturn (150 degree angle and shaped like a boomerang) on the 18th, and suggests investors should use very careful deliberation before making any financial move with this IPO.

A good chart to compare is the Linkedin, Inc. (LNKD) IPO, which ironically was on the same date of May 18th last year. The stock soared to $120 and then fell back to $60 within the first month. There could also be turbulence in the general markets at the end of May, similar to last August, so from my view I prefer to let the dust settle on this IPO.

The following is by Karen Starich, who uses astrology to forecast events in the financial markets. Check out Astrology Traders for specific dates and in-depth analysis of future events in the various markets she covers.