I’m taking a few days off so the advice column will be delayed until later in the week, but meanwhile take a look at this coverage of Henry Weingarten’s Astrology Fund on the financial website TheStreet.com:

For instance, earlier this year Weingarten predicted there would be a major downdraft in the stock market on Aug. 28. It was the last total lunar eclipse, a technical and astrological convergence that culminated with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling 280 points to test the 13,000 level.

Coincidence? Maybe. But it was enough to make me want to find out what Weingarten was predicting at his conference on Sept. 11, the day of the solar eclipse.

The Astrologer’s Fund isn’t a mutual fund. It’s an institutional fund that manages money for high-net worth individuals and institutions. Weingarten declines to say how much he has under management.

According to the fund’s Website, it returned 17% in July, 26% in August and was up 9.7% for the first two weeks of September. However, these are unaudited results.

Weingarten’s head isn’t solely in the stars. He uses a combination of technical analysis, fundamental analysis and astrological charting to make predictions on the direction of commodities, currencies and stocks. The New York money manager says that when all three converge, a major market move is usually in the works. And most of the time he can determine its direction.

“We use all the standard fundamental and technical tools, but astrology is most important,” says Weingarten. “That’s what makes us unique and allows us to capture market surprises most people don’t see. It’s out-of-the-box thinking.” But he adds that if something is overwhelmingly undervalued on a fundamental basis, “I follow that. It depends on the situation.”

Weingarten is also a gold bug. In ordinary times, that would be another strike against him. But these aren’t ordinary times. Since 2001, when he first recommended that his clients buy gold, the yellow metal’s price has surged more than 250%.

In early June, Weingarten predicted a major move up in the price of gold, but said that it needed to test support first. He said watch June 27. That day the price of gold fell $5.70 to $642.85, its lowest point in three months. It’s been rallying ever since.

What are Weingarten’s current predictions? Saturn and Neptune currently have an astrological configuration last seen during the housing crisis of 1989. The money manager says this is a “reality strikes” configuration. The idea is that most bull markets are based on incorrect assumptions; this configuration is usually a sign that a day of reckoning is at hand.

Weingarten says September and October won’t be nice months for stock market bulls. While the bulls had a field day with the Fed’s rate cut last week, he predicts there will be a “significant repricing of assets around Oct. 16.”

He also predicts recessionary conditions will begin by the next quarter, and he’s bearish on most commodities, with the notable exception of gold.

Not surprisingly, he believes investors should buy more gold. The money manager says $690, which until recently was a ceiling for the price of gold, will soon become its floor; he believes the metal could hit $850 by February. That prediction is based purely technical analysis, but Weingarten says the astrological signs are also very good. His three- to five-year target for gold is $1,200.

Weingarten has a bit of a spotty reputation – he has been sued by clients and has been under investigation by the SEC. And his 2006 predictions were off as I covered in this post. Still, it’s exciting to see astrology being highlighted with respect in these major financial publications.