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.
