This year, owing to the Millennium celebration on 1/1/2000, my annual forecasts for the year of the Dragon was published earlier than usual. Such predictions appeared in many different long and short versions in various media - including the Feng Shui for Modern Living Magazine, the Talkies Magazine, the SCMP.com, Business Times, The Star, Be magazine¡Ketc. So far some of these predictions have been quite accurate and some needs further review and elaboration.

In my earlier release I have predicted flooding, environmental disaster, and sickness related to breathing organs. These parts seemed to be quite true - so far we have seen flooding disaster at Mozambique, serious leakage of cyanide from a Romanian gold mine into the river Danube causing ¡§the most damaging environmental disaster since Chernobyl¡¨, and there is scare of flu, forest in Indonesia starts burning again causing air quality problem¡K. Etc.

Making such predictions is no mystery at all. I only examined the pair of elements in the Chinese calendar this year ¡§Metal and Earth¡¨ and make my logical deductions. Firstly - the metal is mother of water and the Dragon is storage of water. So this is a sign of flooding. Secondly, metal destroys wood, which is a symbol of trees, and trees are symbols of the environment - hence I predicted environmental disaster. In this respect, it is so amazing that the cyanide leakage in Romania came from a gold mine - reflecting the disaster is actually caused by metal element. Regarding breathing organ problems and air quality problems, the Chinese traditional medicine uses metal as a symbol of the lung and related breathing organs. As metal appears so prominent in the calendar this year, it is obvious a signal that the breathing organs draw attention.

Also there has been a lot of fire disasters and explosions occurring in Feb. 2000 this include forest fire and volcano eruptions in the Philippines. These can also be explained by Feng Shui flying stars. The year star that goes into centre in 2000 is 9 which is a fire number, and in February, the month star that went into the centre is 5 which is a star of misfortune. These 2 stars came together showed ¡§Fire misfortune¡¨.

With respect to the economy, as predicted, the year of the Dragon started off with a big boom in software and Internet stocks. The NASDAQ has gone all time high and Asian stock markets all enjoyed a bull atmosphere and everybody is crazy about the new economy coming to Asia. How can we understand such phenomenon in metaphysical sense and what can we see about the future prospect of such boom in the year of the Dragon?

Using metaphysical means to forecast the economy is a very difficult task. The Chinese metaphysical tools such as Feng Shui and Four Pillars of Destiny are very ancient. The systems are only designed for understanding individual behavior through examining each person¡þs birthdata. They are never intended for forecasting macro systems as complicated as the stock market and the economy. On the other hand, forecasting the economy is not totally impossible as the market behavior is anything but reflecting the collective luck of all the players. As such, if we analyze the birthdata of the players, theoretically, we can still deduce market trends by looking at the money luck of the majority of the players. Take for example, if most of the investors destiny are in favour of the fire element, then a year of fire or a month of fire, even a day of fire will bring them good money luck. Hence the chance of seeing a bullish market is stronger on those days, months and years. It is on this basis that we can try to build up some metaphysical understanding of the economic performance and make some logical deductions about the market trend.

In my book ¡§Feng Shui and Destiny¡¨ published in 1992, there is a chapter on the stock market and I hypothesized that fire element had been the driving force behind the stock market in the past. But as the global economy has been undergoing significant changes since 1992, this theory needs modification. In my article ¡§Dragon comes to Earth¡¨ appeared in the February issue of the ¡§Talkies¡¨ magazine, I said that fire element has been the driving force of the old economy. However, this phenomenon, with the outbreak of Asia currency crisis in 1997,¡¨ underwent a transformation in 1998 and 1999. It appears that the process will be completed in 2000. Metal, superseding fire, may then emerge as the driving force of the Asian economy¡K¡¨

Why I choose metal to represent the hi-tech industries of today? It is through considerable research into the new generation of market leaders birthdata. And the finding is that most of the important players of the modern hi-tech industries are very strong in metal and earth elements.

The followings are some examples:

If these are representatives and big players of the new economy, we can find some hints to understand the new economy from a metaphysical angle. Firstly, as metal and earth are very prominent in these peoples destiny, I will pick metal and earth as symbolising the new hi-tech industry. Secondly, as they are big players and their luck will affect the performance of the stock market, especially the NASDAQ, then through looking at their favourable and unfavourable elements, we can gain some hints about the market trend.

As most of these players are strong metal persons, their money is represented by wood element, their intelligence and skill is water element, and strong metal element is their competitor and enemy. To generalize - it means strong wood and water years, months and days are more favourable to the NASDAQ than strong metal and earth year, month and days. I have examined the last 24 months historical record of the NASDAQ and it appears matching well with this hypothesis.

The message is - the year of the Dragon is a year of strong metal and earth, it means a year of strong hi-tech activities. It also means a year of severe competition with many people enter the market, and the element is not favourable as heavy metal means severe competition for the players. Early spring is fine with strong wood bringing money, but it is necessary to be careful, especially in metal months and metal seasons. ( April, August, September, October).

I have to end this article with a warning - this article is only an elementary academic study of the technique of Four Pillars of Destiny and there are many variables not explained nor accounted for in the study. The idea is far from conclusive and should not be relied on as a tool for speculation in the stock market. To win or lose in the market is more to do with ones individual fortune as reflected by ones own birthdata.