I promise: this is my last cycle post for a while! But while looking at some blog sites that refer to this site I found a NASA sunspot cycle site which has a phenomenal cycle curve of the current sunspot cycle # 23.
Most cycle buffs are well aware of the history of sunspot cycles in market prediction. The ~11 or ~22 (double) cycle of dark spots on the sun, due to turbulence, have been observed by astronomers at least as long ago as 800 BCE in China and as early as 1100 AD in Europe.
The German-British astronomer Sir Wiliam Herschel made one of the first modern attempts to relate agricultural prices to the sunspot cycle in the earliest part of the 19th century. The sun is obviously the most important seasonal variant for traditional agriculture, so it stood to reason that variations in solar output (surmised as an effect of the cyclical dark spots) would affect supply of field crops.
Rather than repeat a lot of archived information, let me suggest you Google ""sun spot cycle ancient china"" for a good list of sunspot specialist websites of all kinds. Or if you ever see in a used book store (or on Ebay or Amazon) a copy of the thin monograph, "Astro-Economics" by LCdr David Williams, snap it up.
In any event, here is the amazing chart of Sunspot Cylce #23 by NASA. Look at that with a stock market index chart along side it. What does it all mean? "Who knows", as my professor of European history used to say.
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