Astrologer Claims She Made a 36% Return Picking Stocks Using Star Signs: 'It Feels Like Insider Trading'

In Ojai, a small California town better known for its light than its stock listings, Rachel Lang lives two improbable lives. Part of the week she reads clients as a professional astrologer. The rest she governs, as an elected member of the city council. In between, she picks stocks by the planets.

Lang, an author, has spent more than a decade reading the markets the way she reads a person, by their chart. Since 2019, she claims, the portfolio she manages herself has averaged a 36% annual return, far outpacing the broader market over the same period. Speaking to The Cut, she owned the queasy thrill of it. 'I always joke, "Is it fair for me to use astrology in this way?" Sometimes it feels almost like insider trading, having these tools,' she said.

It only feels that way. Real insider trading is a securities-law crime built on secret, material information; Lang's inputs are the opposite of secret, the same sky everyone can see. Whether it works is another matter, and she hedges hard. She holds no financial licence, never calls herself an adviser, and sends clients to certified professionals before they act. 'It's sort of like a weather report,' she said. 'We see a cold front coming, and we say, "You might want to bring a jacket." But the wind could change. The rain might not come.'

Picking Stocks by the Stars, Winners and Blind Spots

Lang came to astrology sideways. She studied it while working in marketing in the 1990s, went professional in 2006, then took a Los Angeles job as marketing director and in-house astrologer at a fashion company. Around 2012, she turned the lens on her own money, studying under British financial astrologer Christeen Skinner. Two points in a chart do most of the work. The second house, she says, reveals a person's relationship with money; the eighth, the sectors they grasp by instinct. Hers are communications, media, transportation, and technology.

She also weighs whether a company's chart suits her own. Costco and Netflix pass the test. 'If Costco were a human, we would be best friends,' she said, and both, she adds, have paid off. Reading trouble in cycles due in early 2020, she stockpiled cash in 2019, then bought transportation, technology, and banking as markets crashed that spring, doing especially well out of Southwest Airlines.

Transportation is more than a hunch for Lang, who also serves as vice chair of a regional transit board. She bought bitcoin cheap and sold near its peak, turning $2,000 to $3,000 (£1,500 to £2,250) into about $10,000 (£7,500). When Pluto entered Aquarius in late 2024, she read a green light for 'air-sign' sectors and leaned towards Nvidia, Alphabet, Meta, robotics funds, and the electric-aircraft maker Archer Aviation.

The losses grounded her. Food and health are blind spots, and a bet on Beyond Meat cost about $7,000 (£5,250). Gaming stocks, bought because Jupiter was crossing gambling-linked Sagittarius, went the same way. The fix, she says, was to pair astrology with old-fashioned research rather than trust the stars alone.

What She Is Telling Clients About 2026

Her advice for the year ahead is caution. Lang reads a stretch of 'fire energy' as a sign that inflation has not yet peaked. 'It'll get worse before it gets better,' she said. She wants clients holding cash, though not in dollars, expecting the currency to weaken, and flags cycles she likens to 2008 that could open buying opportunities in a downturn. It is a forecast, she stresses, not a promise.

The Booming Business of Financial Astrology

Lang is far from alone. The global astrology industry is tipped to reach $22.8B (£17.1B) by 2031, according to Allied Market Research, and a 2024 Harris Poll found 62% of Gen Z believe in it. Feeds have filled with traders crediting the cosmos, among them a 25-year-old who claimed $31,000 (£23,250) in profits in months.

The warnings are just as loud. Another astrologer, known online as Doctor Racso, reportedly lost around $440,000 (£330,000) chasing the same signals. Finance academics file the winners under survivorship bias: hand enough people a coin, and some will flip heads 20 times in a row.

Lang has heard it all and stays unbothered. She has since taken her method into prediction markets, clearing more than $1,000 (£750) on Kalshi reading public figures' charts, against one wrong call that cost $700 (£525). She says she is ready to bet bigger. 'I'm a pretty cautious person in general,' she said, 'but now that I've had some success, I'm going to put in more.'

Disclaimer: Our digital media content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Please conduct your own analysis or seek professional advice before investing. Remember, investments are subject to market risks, and past performance does not guarantee future returns.