“G-d Doesn’t Play Dice” by Eron Bar Tal

Professor Charles Nenner, a religious Jew of Dutch origin has developed an algorithm that predicts future shares and foreign currency rates, and even the dates of future wars. Throughout the world, he is paid a lot of money for these predictions, but in Israel he is barely listened to. Recently, a friend of mine phoned me and offered to arrange a meeting with a professor who specializes in predicting stock and currency rates on Wall Street. “He has really big clients. He sounds really interesting, and he is presently visiting Israel”. Thus my friend presented the man, and it was enough to get me to phone him.

Professor Charles Nenner was staying at that time in Jerusalem, but just when I phoned him, he was on his way to Tel Aviv with his wife and two children. So I arranged to meet with him that same day. In fact, within the hour.

Within 30 minutes, I found myself sitting with the bespectacled, bearded, yarmulke-wearing professor, together with his cute son, who was wearing an even larger yarmulke. In Nenner’s case, the yarmulke is very relevant to his financial prognostications.

Nenner: “In my studies of Economics dealing with the ‘Theory of Cyclical Business Trends’ – a theory which holds that Economics progression and perhaps the progress of all life in general is not linear, but rather progresses in patterns of rises and falls. In itself, this is nothing new – some of the classical explanations for the existence of periodicity in the economy, rely for example, on the era when the economy was essentially agrarian, and as such, it was dependent on yearly seasonal changes. Clearly, the harvest season was also a time of increased income for many businesses, and when the money flowed to the markets – they rose. Periodicity of this type is considerable even today in various branches such as tourism, fishing, and more. In any case, almost every economy in the Western world nowadays is based on industry, services, and information, and is therefore cut off from any direct influence of seasonality. Therefore, it is also estranged from any explanations of this type”.

Bar Tal: Professor Nenner’s reasoning for this periodicity is entirely of a different sort. “People are influenced by electromagnetic fields surrounding the sun, and financial markets are likewise affected”. Nenner has developed an algorithm which enables him, by means of the software he developed, to feed data from the past on a particular index, and predict its continued development, according to the current state of the electromagnetic fields. Sound a bit absurd to you? Look, even Albert Einstein intended something similar when he said, “G-d doesn’t play dice" [with the universe], inferring that nothing in the world is accidental.

Bar Tal: Professor Nenner, are you a determinist? Have we no ability to have influence on the world?

Nenner: Everything is foreseen, yet freedom [of choice] is granted. This is true regarding the individual, however, for the market, for a large group of people, their ability to influence the collective, is very limited. Therefore, I do not attempt to predict the future of any particular individual, but it is possible to predict the future of a market or a state. You need to understand, that events don’t occur without reason. There is a plan. There is a clear line to history. In 1870, the market in Berlin collapsed. There was peace between France and Germany. In 1929, Hitler appeared and became part of the plan to return the people of Israel to Zion, and the establishment of a state.

Bar Tal: You are aware that many Holocaust survivors are not enamored of this theory.

Nenner: Why? We mention the Exodus on Pesach and Succot. We accept that G-d hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and that the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt, as part of the plan of the Exodus from Egypt, and the journey to the land of Israel. So what’s the difference – that one happened a long time ago, and the Holocaust was more recent?

Bar Tal: Then you also foresee when a war or a similar traumatic event will occur?

Nenner: Yes. When I see that the market is about to drop on a particular day, it’s clear that this was connected to some other traumatic event. Thus, I foresaw the tragedy of the Twin Towers, and I fled with my family beforehand from New York to Miami. I also foresaw the Second Lebanon War. It’s a shame that they didn’t listen to me here.

Bar Tal: We are speaking about the effects of the War on the market?

Nenner: No. Sunspots are the cause of the sequence of events, positive or negative. There is no causal connection between the war and the state of the market. The connection between the state of war and the market is a factor common to both of them – the electromagnetic fields which are formed on earth as the result of sunspots.

Note: Professor Nenner deposited with a notary, his prediction of the last war [the Second Lebanon War with Hezbollah]. He also forwarded it to an official in the Ministry of Defense, but according to him, they did not relate to it seriously.

War is Approaching

Bar Tal: Anyone who would do a bit of research on Professor Nenner will find it very difficult to build around him the image of an idiot-savant. We’re speaking about a multi-talented man. He’s a ranking chess player, a talented pianist, a violinist who studied under Isaac Stern, an accredited physician who practiced in hospitals in Holland, a fluent speaker of seven languages, learns the Talmud regularly, and teaches a course in Business Administration at the University of Miami. He serves as a guest lecturer at international conferences of the investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, where he also worked as an employee, and until today, he still continues to provide them with exclusive services. Nenner. “When I arrived in the US as a doctor, my friends who were working in the Capital Markets at Merrill Lynch suggested that I assist them in the analysis of shares in medicine and biotechnology. I very quickly realized that these stock quotes are influenced by the entirety of the market. I also knew that everything was connected in some kind of periodicity, which was worthwhile investigating”, says Nenner.

Bar Tal: And what is possible to say now about the next war in Israel?

Nenner: “We are showing in our prognosis, that there is a big probability of war in Israel at the end of August or the beginning of September.

Bar Tal: Is it possible to prevent the next war?

Nenner: No. But it is possible to prepare for it better. [This preparation can even mitigate the decision of others to declare war though.] It is possible to alter the results on a personal level, but not from the standpoint of the general outcome. I really don’t understand why they are not preparing more in earnest for the next war. This is strange, especially since we saw the results of the last war.

Bar Tal: Why would a scientist want to seek a strange curiosity in order to predict wars, stock prices, etc.?

Nenner: “It is not at all odd for a scientist to search for a periodicity. As a physician, I knew, for example, that the new moon has influence on early births. It’s known that on days of a full moon, there are more early births than on other days. It’s known also, that on the days of the full moon, there are more hospitalizations of the mentally ill.”

Bar Tal: At Professor Nenner’s company, "Earthlink", his personal role is not to deal with customers or to lecture. This duty he leaves to the hands of another talented person- also a religious Jew-David Gurwitz. David Gurwitz is an attorney, an accountant, has a degree in Business Administration, and his job is to manage the company’s clients. Amongst the clients – in addition to Goldman Sachs – are included, large banks, hedge funds from the world over, and even some entire countries. Then, how does the sun influence our behavior and the behavior of markets?

Nenner: Sunspots effect the generation of electromagnetic fields on earth, these in turn, affect the behavior of people. It is clear that there exists some cause which influences the sunspots, which in turn effect the fields, and that there is an additional cause which effects that cause. It is also clear that that first cause is the Creator who runs the world by means of some sort of logic and order. We of course cannot understand this logic, but we can observe its twists and turns and learn something from it.

Bar Tal: For what you charge for the predictions for others, why don’t you just rake in the profits yourself?

Nenner: Over the years, I’ve done enough for myself. It’s no longer interesting. What does interest me, is having influence. Therefore, I have moved into the realm of consultation. I am now bound by constraints, and am forbidden to acquire the certificates whose purchase I recommend.

Bar Tal: And what would happen if you had many clients who would know in advance how the market is about to react? Wouldn’t this change your prediction?

Nenner: I brought this question up with my wife. She said that the world is so planned, that not everyone will listen to the predictions and believe in them. The fact is, that the predictions exist. They are correct, but not everyone acts according to them.

Bar Tal: At this point, the interview was about to end, and we decided to meet another time the next day, at Nenner’s apartment, next to the President’s home in Jerusalem. We began this meeting with a guided viewing of a video of Nenner on the CNBC station, and a video of Nenner's presentation on the Bloomberg financial channel. David Gurwitz, Nenner’s manager, speaks in the first interview. He explains Nenner’s theory with impressive fluency and illustrates its implementation with an abundance of graphs. From the graphs, it was possible to clearly see Nenner’s past predictions and how they amazingly corresponded with the actual events. Gurwitz also presents a graph of sunspots, and shows the correspondence between the rises and falls of the graph and the rises and falls of various indices. Also in the film short with Bloomberg, it is astonishing to see that clarity of explanations which are by no means routine, and to see the investigative interviewer’s reactions as she displays great interest with openness, and no hint of cynicism or suspicion. Nenner again wonders why people in Israel are so closed and fixed in their thoughts. “Clients in the US, in England, in Holland, and all over the world benefit from these predictions, but specifically here in Israel where I would like to have influence, I have encountered walls of suspicion and rejection. At least let them try these predictions. They have nothing to lose,” says Nenner.

Bar Tal: How do your clients accept these explanations?

Nenner: “There are many people who are partners in this understanding. A large number of them tell me that they are afraid to mention this, lest they sound a bit strange. Of course, my clients don’t care if my explanations are weird or not. What matters to them, is the bottom line – do my explanations help them predict the markets or not! They see the results over time and this is what truly interests them.”

NASDAQ Will Continue to Fall

Bar Tal: What is the forecast for world markets today?

Nenner: In general, we see the market rising periodically, until the maximum, which will register in the year 2013. On the way there, there will a be a significant amount of profit-taking. Thus, for example, the NASDAQ index will continue to fall until it reaches 1963 points.

Bar Tal: What other markets are you tracking?

Nenner: We keep track of everything that interests our clients. We’re speaking about all the liquid markets, including the money markets, foreign currencies, commodities and more. For every market which has a pertinent data record from past years, it is possible to build for it a prediction for the coming years. This includes inflation, interest, and more.

Bar Tal: But inflation is determined by the decision of a number of people. At their head is the director of the Central Bank.

Nenner: True, but they are influenced by the same thing – the influence of the electromagnetic fields.

Bar Tal: Why don’t you have big clients in Israel?

Nenner: I also have no small clients in Israel, and this truly astounds me. Once, I used to think the problem was with the high rates. (Nenner’s clients must part with no less than $50,000 in order to be privy to the bi-weekly predictions concerning the state of the market which interests them). But also, when I agreed to lower the price for Israelis, to the small sum of several thousand dollars, they displayed no interest. I simply don’t understand what’s going on in this country. People in the Ministry of Defense have demonstrated obtuseness. A person comes to them and he’s willing to offer them information for free, and they don’t even give him the opportunity.

Bar Tal: Why is it at all important to you to have clients in Israel.

Nenner: I would very much like to change things here. Everything here is difficult. I asked in the Ministry of Defense if they checked if there’s a correlation between the day of the week and the occurrence of a terrorist attack. They are not the least interested in investigating in this direction because it doesn’t exist in their conceptual system. Their system of education is closed. There are no creative solutions there. When my son learned here, I complained about the violence in the school. They told me, “that’s how kids are”. But that’s wrong. I know of school systems where there is no violence. Also, in the Transportation Ministry, there is no openness. I asked them, for example, if they have examined the co-relation between the days of the week and the number of accidents on that day. I asked them if they had examined other correlations. It turns out that they don’t look into anything that doesn’t appear logical to them. Too many people here believe that they have a monopoly on intelligence- they know it all and it’s impossible to tell them anything new. It’s a pity. The life here makes it impossible for people like me to live here. “In 1994, I appeared on the program, ‘There’s Someone You Can Talk With’. I predicted the exact date on which the Intifada would break out. I waited for a call from them to clarify the matter with me—to speak about it, but no one was interested. This is definitely the place for them.”, says an astonished Nenner.

Is A New Career In the Offing?

Nenner: “Of course, I am very interested in Theory, but I am mainly interested in its Application.”

Bar Tal: I wonder if this interview might be a turn in my career. Can I now take leave of my readers, abandon my job, in order to concentrate on more profitable matters, like trading in foreign currency and stocks? To Nenner, it’s clear that I can – if this is what I want. I cautiously suggest, that if he doesn’t mind, he should forward to me each week, his predictions for the dollar exchange rate, the MAOF Index, and anything else that could assist me in my new career. Nenner agrees without hesitation, and we agree that in the near future, we will publish a column with his forecasts, similar to those which his worldwide clientele are required to pay tens of thousands of dollars a month for, in order to benefit from. Of course, from our standpoint, we would be speaking about publishing the forecasts of a private company, which carry no recommendation to implement any sort of action and are not a substitute for personal consultation. Therefore, anyone who takes action according to the predictions, does so on his own cognizance, and exclusively at his own risk. Even so, we look forward to a positive turn in the lives of all our readers.