(8 November 2026) Stocks fell sharply last week after the Democrat sweep of the midterm elections threatened to upset the AI-driven economic growth model. Tech stocks were hit the hardest with the NASDAQ losing -5% and the S&P 500 down almost -3%.  The more broadly-based NYSE Composite Index fell by -1.4%. This decline was unexpected given the improving statistics of the alignments we are tracking.  As always, there are a number of active alignments -- both bullish and bearish -- that we must consider for our assessment of the current market conditions.  The inability to recognize the negative potential of last week's sell-off highlights the problem of synthesis: how to combine disparate influences into a summary estimation of probability?  Up to now, I have been relying on a simple additive process in which probabilities are determined through backtesting market performance of different planetary alignments.  While it is useful for identifying trends, it may not be sensitive enough to account for all short-term fluctuations. My approach to backtesting has focused upon mean and median price changes over time and data distribution (i.e....