Retrograde
A planet is retrograde when, seen from Earth, it appears to move backwards through the zodiac for a few weeks.
What it is
No planet ever reverses in space. Retrograde motion is an effect of perspective: Earth and the other planet orbit the Sun at different speeds, so for a stretch of time the other planet seems to slide backwards against the background stars, the way a slower car looks like it drifts back when you overtake it on a highway.
Mercury goes retrograde three or four times a year for about three weeks, Venus every eighteen months for about six weeks, Mars every two years for about ten weeks. Jupiter and Saturn spend roughly four months of every year retrograde.
How the tradition reads it in markets
Classical astrology treats a retrograde period as a time of review rather than launch. The themes the planet rules are revisited: for Mercury that is communication, contracts and short-term trading; for Venus it is value, pricing and luxury goods; for Mars it is energy, drive and conflict. The tradition reads these weeks as more prone to second-guessing, delays and reversals of earlier moves.
In AstroFinex the retrograde state is one input among many in the daily, weekly and monthly readings. It never decides a reading on its own.
What to keep in mind
Retrograde is a fixed, calculable astronomical fact; what it means for prices is a matter of tradition, not of measured evidence. AstroFinex reports the dates exactly and describes how the tradition reads them. It does not claim that a retrograde predicts a market move.