W.D. Gann

Along with being a pioneer in the field of technical analysis William Delbert Gann is considered by many to be one of the greatest traders of all time along with holding the title “Father of technical analysis and forecasting”

Born on a farm in Lufkin Texas on June 6, 1878 to Sam and Susan Gann, William was the firstborn of eleven children who like his siblings was encouraged at a very early age by his parents to read and study the Bible. Reading the bible was much easier for William than working on his father’s cotton fields as he found genuine interest in its scriptures.

Thanks to his religious upbringing William eventually discovered that his own interpretations of Bible scripture were different from those of his Pastor's as he believed the Bible was written in a veiled language concerning cycles of time. This in turn made it more significant to uncover, understand and actually apply the true meanings within its pages. Cycles, repetition of significant number sequence along with Wise Men following the stars are what he felt the bible was really about.

Gann attend grammar school but opted out of high school and college for a career in finance trading. He took up work for a brokerage firm in Texarkana while at the same time attended business school at night. Throughout his schooling Gann was known by his teachers as a gifted Mathematician along with having a great appetite for sacred knowledge. He felt if he could understand the sacred sciences correctly he may be able to forecast the future trends of markets well into the future.

This burning desire to understand and actually apply sacred knowledge to price and time charts led him down some interesting and odd avenues which culminated in many unique and fantastic forecasting discoveries over his long trading career.

Gann made his first trade in cotton at the age of 24, a commodity he was very familiar with and was the beginning of his legendary trading career. His first trade was marked with the small profit However, over the next fifty-three years Gann was cited as taking over fifty million from the markets using his unique techniques.

Apparently he was not just getting his feet wet with that initial commodity trade as it appeared from his first trade on he was applying the techniques of his own discoveries with outstanding results lasting many years. These same technical techniques were also undefinable to most modern market technicians around at his time or even today!

It also appeared that WD continued to use, refine and add to his observations throughout the rest of his trading career as his books and courses can attest. This research also included the discoveries made within his mystical Biblical codex research. However, Gann never totally revealed all of his secrets to his private students or within the various articles and later interviews.

In 1903 at the age of 25, Gann moved to New York City were he started his own brokerage firm, “W.D. Gann and Co.” His quest for perfection also led him to Oklahoma City in 1906 where he worked as a broker for a small brokerage firm both making trades for himself along with handling large accounts for other clients.

However having a continually restless mind, he also examined the successes and failures within the theories of other traders and found that more than 90% of those who enter the markets without proper knowledge lost in the end.

In the beginning Gann also lost significant amounts of money on trades which he admitted on several occasions, however he later wrote that by entering the trading arena without solid rules and based soley on the feelings of hope, greed and fear is what caused most of his losses in the first place. In his later works he cautioned that if uncontrolled these same emotions would also eventually lead to most trader’s demise. It was at this point his 29 rules of success were defined and written down.

Also early on in his trading career Gann just like RN Elliott and George Bayer noticed that hidden within the intermittent rise and fall of the stock and commodity market price/time swings was a type of hidden order. This hidden order is what eventually led Gann after many years of research to the discovery that natural and universal law made not just for an interesting read but was also the root cause within most markets price and time cycles. He again felt if he could better understand these same natural laws he could make superior trading decisions.

This discovery set off at least ten years of devoted research on the metaphysical relationship between stock and commodity market fluctuations. According to many he traveled to England, Egypt and India in order to learn more about the ancient mathematics of astronomy, astrology and the sacred science of proportions vaguely mentioned by the mystic of old. Many also believe it was in a temple visited in Egypt whose construction led him to the formulation of his unique “Square of 9 and spiral charts.

What amazed me was since calculators were non-existent in the early 1900's Gann had to understand those concepts to such a degree that he could substitute a slide rule for his own master charts. Using the Square of 9 as an ingenious type of calculator he was able to analyze and study the price actions of various markets many years in advance.

It is also believed that a total of nine months were spent in the British Museum working day in and day out researching stock and commodity prices dating back to the 1820’s along with wheat prices going all the way back to the 1200’s. Gann also found himself in the New York Astor Library were he further researched stock and commodity markets fluctuations based on natural law.

Over time Gann became a prolific researcher in the fields of numerology, weather forecasting, astronomy, astrology and sacred proportion sequencing. Some also believe he was a 33rd degree Mason ( but I personally never found proof to this claim), But again claimed he learned his forecasting techniques from reading the Bible along with other means of research.

However, according Gann it wasn't until August 8 1908 that his greatest mathematical discovery was made called his “Master Time Factor.” After this date it became clear that his success was much more than”luck” as many predictions after this period were over 85% accurate throughout the following years.

Gann also began publishing a daily market letter in 1919 titled, “The Supply and Demand Newsletter,” which covered the topics of stocks and commodities as well as publicizing yearly forecasts. Gann’s market forecasts during the 1920s were also said by many to be approximately 85% accurate.

In early 1923, Gann started another service called “The Busy Man’s Service,” where Gann supervised the trading accounts of various professionals and business men instructing them on what to buy, when to buy it, and when to sell.

According to Gann the basic premise behind his trading method was that the future is a repetition of the past and that time governed all parts of market movements. His discoveries also enabled him to understand just how and when the effects of natural law governed the actions of men over cycles of time. And since he could calculate these cycles’ days, weeks, or even months in advance he demonstrated over and over that he could beat the markets with his superior trading decisions.

Gann was so adept at trading stocks and commodities based on his unique time and price discoveries that he was able to publish forecasts for yearly highs and lows on multiple markets with uncanny accuracy years in advance.

As an example in 1928 Gann made a forecast which was published in 1928 predicting the 1929 Stock market “Crash” as well as predicting it being a Black Friday, a full year in advance!

He also published many books such as “The Tunnel Through The Air,” published in 1927. (This particular book is noted for Gann’s prediction of Japan’s attack on the U.S years in advance) “The Truth of the Stock Tape,” “How to Make Profits from Pulls and Calls,” “How to Make Profits in Commodities,” “45 Years in Wall Street,” and “New York Stock trend Detector.”along with produced various instructional courses on trading.(Most courses were just notes and individual lessons strung together over the years)

Mr. Gann also had a cache of price and time tools which were taught to his personal students in weekend courses during the the late 1940’s and mid 1950s estimated around $5,000. Among some of the tools were the Square of Nine, The Square of 144, the Square of 90, the hexagon Chart as well as many other unique forecasting applications.

As an example Gann shared similar beliefs as RN Elliot as he believed that Bull and Bear campaign moved in three to five sections. Elliott believed that there were three impulse waves in a in a “Bull or Bear,” trend with the possibility of an extended fifth wave. Each however believed that the markets most commonly repeated ½ or 50%, 5/8ths (62.5%), or 3/8ths (37.5%) of the previous range in both price and time.

In the late 1930’s John L. Gann (Gann”s Son) was in partnership with his father in the firm, W.D. Gann and Son Inc. However a clash of personalities between the two ended their business association in the mid 1940’s do to the science of astrology. As John did not believe it played a big enough part in technical analysis for it to effect market trends or in human behavior upset his father greatly as he felt it to be fact.

In 1947 William sold his company W.D. Gann Research Inc. to a San Francisco attorney named C.C. Loosli. Mr. Loosli became disenchanted with the company and on February 14, 1948, turned it over to a gentleman named Joseph Lederer, who was from St. Louis Missouri.

The W.D. Gann Research office later operated from 82 Wall Street in New York City up until 1952 then relocated to Scarsdale New York. The company once again moved in 1956 to St. Louis where its only function was that of investment advising. Gann later moved to Miami Florida in 1950 where he and his partner Ed Lambert founded the Lambert-Gann Publishing Company. Ed Lambert was an architect who designed the interstate highway system of the greater Miami area.

On June 14, 1955 the trading world lost one of its greatest legends and traders as this was the day W.D. Gann succumbed to cancer in the Methodist Hospital located in Brooklyn New York at the age of 77.

He was survived by his wife Sadie, his son John, and his three daughters. It is believed that his son, John L. Gann passed away in 1984.

Though it was rumored that Mr. Gann was buried along side his second wife Rena May Smith in Green-Wood Cemetery located in Brooklyn New York overlooking Wall Street, I personally know this to be fact as I have personally visited the site several times over the years. And yes, it actually does overlook Wall Street though several trees have grown in blocking a portion of his spectacular Wall Street view.

Ed Lambert his partner in the publishing company to this day is responsible for keeping the “Gann Knowledge alive,” which include many collected records, charts, and journals which were later sold to a gentleman named Billy Jones in the 1960s. Jones was the one responsible for compiling all of Gann’s works into two instructional courses that were entitled, “The W.D. Gann Commodity Course,” and “The W.D. Gann Stock Market Course.”

Gann’s charts also disclose the cycles worked on dating back to the beginning of written records on several commodities and were found by most to be unlike any others research up to the present.

Luckily, now run by Nikkie Jones (wife of Billy Jones) Lambert Gann still houses the master works of WD Gann for all to see. Lambert Gann is located in Sabina, Ohio

Being a humble man who even at the age of 75 never claimed to have learned all there was to know about the secret science of stock and commodity trading, however in reality knew more about the the workings of our financial markets than any other trader in existence.

Links

Gann Angles
PVTPoint Market Research / Biographies
PVTPoint Market Research / Combined View of the Masters
WD Gann, Coffee and Astrology