There was a story on NPR this morning about the Fear and Greed Index:

When the index is low, fear is the dominant emotion. Investors tread warily. But when it’s high, greed is in the driving seat and no one seems to believe that prices can fall.

The index, says the investment bank, has just hit an all-time high and that means a full-scale slump in riskier assets could be in the offing.

Last year’s square of Saturn and Jupiter caused many of us to predict a downturn in the markets, but the expansion of Jupiter traveling through Scorpio (dealing with other people’s money) combined with the generally irrational exuberance of Pluto in Sagittarius seems to have kept the market afloat. Now with Jupiter in Sag coinciding with Pluto’s last pass through that exceedingly optimistic sign, it may be the last opportunity for stock market gains that occur merely because investors are optimistic.

The stock market is based upon the principle of abundance: when investors believe the market is going up, people buy stocks and companies have more money to invest in producing more product, which is then bought by more people, who then have more money to invest in stocks and even more product. Abundance and the principle of expansion is associated with Sagittarius, which means this could be the last year of stock market gains before the major reality check of Pluto entering Capricorn in 2008.