Influence of Astrological Planetary Effects on Gold Price Volatility - An Empirical Investigation

There raises questions in the mind of the researchers that “Do moon phases influence the bullion markets”. This paper explores the impact of lunar cycle effects on gold price volatility by developing and examining the conditional volatility models in an attempt to confine the prominent features of volatility in bullion market during full moon and new moon periods. This study fills the gap of addressing a corroboration of time varying volatility, which exhibits clustering, high persistence and certainty and responds asymmetrically for positive and negative shocks exclusively during different lunar cycle periods. Results reveal that the impact of good news is less in times of full moon day’s gold price return series. Greater volatility exists during full moon days in gold prices. More influence of information comes from previous day’s volatility during full moon days. This researchers conclude that it is prosperous to buy gold during the new moon period. The gold price is highly volatile during the full moon days. People are more optimistic to buy gold exclusively during new moon day period rather than full moon day period.