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Chinese New Year: Year of the Goat to bring wild ride for investors, says Feng Shui master

With a struggling dollar and continuing shenanigans in the oil sector, the Chinese Year of the Goat (Sheep or Ram) – which starts Thursday – will bring with it an equally rollicking Canadian economy.

“2015 brings lots of change, adjustments and corrections,” Sharon Hay, a Feng Shui Master and president of Sharon Hay International tells Yahoo Finance Canada. “(It) will be slightly more favourable compared to 2014.”

She also predicts a difficult year for investors.

“International disharmony and volatile political issues will create drastic fluctuations in the global economy which could translate into financial losses for some with regards to their investments,” says Hay. “With extreme caution and due diligence wealth can be achieved.”

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Traditionally, Chinese businesses look to Feng Shui and astrology to help guide them in decision making.

But it’s not just Eastern businesses seeking meaning in the Chinese Zodiac. Hay has worked with businesses like TD, IKEA and the Ontario Real Estate Association to apply the principals of the ancient practice to the business world.

In addition to the eight symbols representing years, Chinese astrology signs also rotates through five elements – fire, wood, water, earth and metal – which are used to interpret and make predictions about the ebb and flow of the wider economy.

Hay suspects construction and real estate developments will face challenges caused by the unfavourable impact of the earth element and that there will be significant competition in businesses such as furniture, publishing and clothing caused by the abundance of the wood element.

“Lack of the metal element means shortages of gold and silver, which in turns suggests the values of these commodities will rise,” says Hay. “This will be favourable for metal industries such as machinery, engineering and high tech.”

It bodes well for prominent technopreneur Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, who happens to be born in the Year of the Goat.

According to ultra-high net-worth chronicling website Wealth-X, 8.4 per cent of the world’s wealthiest people were born in the Year of the Goat, which makes it the fourth most common zodiac sign of the planet’s richest next to Rabbit, Horse and Monkey.

Only 6 per cent of those UHNW are involved in the tech sector. Nearly a fifth of the world’s richest born in the Goat’s year have made their billions in the financial sector or banking and investing.

The last Year of the Goat began February 1st 2003 and ended January 21st 2004.

Although it was a particularly good year for the S&P 500, which grew 33.4 per cent, Hay cautions we manage our expectations.

“Overall, the year will bring lots of compromise, flexibility, negotiations and progress,” she adds.