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The story of W. D. Gann


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Various opportunists sell “Gann courses” and “Gann software.” They claim that 
Gann was one of the best traders who ever lived, that he left a $50 million estate, 
and so on. I interviewed W. D. Gann’s son, an analyst for a Boston bank. He told me 
that his famous father could not support his family by trading but earned his living by 
writing and selling instructional courses. He could not afford a secretary and made 
his son work for him. When W. D. Gann died in the 1950s, his estate, including his 
house, was valued at slightly over $100,000. The legend of W. D. Gann, the giant of 
trading, is perpetuated by those who sell courses and other paraphernalia to gullible 
customers.

From 'The New Trading for a Living', Dr Alexander Elder, 2014, Wiley and Sons.

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I would class myself as a Gann Expert - I've spent 5 years studying Gann - I've got his courses sat on the bookshelf behind me (see pic) - before the smart ar£$ comments - I've owned over 250 trading books, those are the only ones that have remained out of the bin - Elders books are unfortunately most probably being used as recycled toilet paper somewhere

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Gann has been turned into a legend in my opinion he IS/WAS, but in the trading community because 99% of people who study his courses fail to see the wood for the trees - Gann made a series of predictions, it's these predictions that he's remember for and its why people devoted huge amounts of time to "cracking the code" of his secrets

There's a massive contradiction here - it is correct that statement above from his son, there is absolutely no evidence of Gann making $50 million dollars from trading, if you follow the content of his courses they are ALL after the fact examples, HOWEVER, he traded in front of an auditor for 1 month and turned a tiny amount of money into tens of thousands - it was audited by an Independent party, proof of this can be found in the TICKER Interview and publication that was published in December 1909 - It is in this Ticker Interview that he mentions that the "Law of Vibration" can account for stock market movements (This is 100% absolutely correct)

So you'd think that a person who claims to have made $50mill but only left $100k there's something at odds here - I personally don't care, to me way back in the 2000's it seemed very odd to me and I've always had that at the back of my mind when studying Gann

The CONTENT of his courses will either prove he was great or not - I can attest that some of it is useless, some of it doesn't make sense and just does not work and some of it works, but of that some of it does work you can end up making serious returns annually

Gann also wrote a veiled novel in the 1920's called "Tunnel Thru the Air" - This is the novel that Gann experts shred to bits to find the holy grail (no ones found it yet!) 

All those that research Gann invest a huge amount of time into looking at Astrology (because Gann was an Astrologer, his list of recommended reading had lots of Astrological books in it, some of his works that have found there way to the public domain show use of Astrology and planets (Gann got his students to sign non-disclosure agreements as well as them paying $5k back in the 1920/30's!) - when all these Gann experts realise that nothing is actually clear, they then turn to recovering the money spent on trying to figure out Gann as well as the lost years they've invested! this is where the rip off comes from

Now comes my bit - HOWEVER........

Some of Gann works

I've personally made more money trading Gann than any other method - It's probably why I've referenced Gann for the past few months on here as a VERY BIG hint (very very few would have picked up on that though)

The Law of Vibration he mentions is 100% correct - I've tested it on the Dow Index since 1792 to present and it has a 90% win rate - The problem is it's not quite as Gann describes it, and most importantly Gann never reveals it or what he uses to construct it - doesn't take a genius to figure it out though as i managed to!

In the chart below that's the Law of Vibration at work - go and check out what the main stock markets (USA/UK) did on Aug 18th 2015 - As you can see I published this chart months in advance of that date - these vibration cycles can be traced right back to May 12th 1792

The REASON why 18th Aug 2015 was only a plunge is because the RED cycle line arrives BEFORE the Blue cycle line - Look at the chart for what happens when red comes after blue

These cycles are handy to know if you're an Investor - As a trader you'll know the most likely direction of the market but that does not stop you being able to trade and make money

The laziest way to Invest is buying and holding - you'd just buy a ETF @ the mid-cycle low such as 1974 or 2009 and just hold until red or blue cycle line of the ending period of the 17 year up cycle, sit out the coming correction and then reinvest - I have absolutely no plans whatsoever to reveal the next section - I've revealed this elsewhere in full so it can be proved i made the calls years in advance if its ever challenged - but it's a blueprint for my family as I can tell you now when the major crashes and rises are going to be for the next 500 years

Between the Blue lines there's Internal cycles at play (not shown in the chart below, but 1 is shown in the chart below that) - also not all the valid cycles are shown on these charts EVERY major turning point can be attributed to a cycle

207900770_Timecycles2.thumb.gif.3d2d09ab14437983131766416ca63fb8.gif

Now I've made absolutely fantastic calls well in advance of time see below! I called out the period around March 2020 3 years in advance - using GANN - I might publish on here the 2021 dates at some point

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Gann had his emblem as below - Square and a Triangle inside a circle - If you take a circle of 360 degrees and place the square you get 90 degree angles and ~Triangle gives you 120 degree angles which can be used in a multitude of ways - Time Price etc

Gann believed that everything in nature revolved in a circle and within that circle it could be divided using the square and triangle etc - anyone who knows music knows scales, nodes/vibration points and they know that these can be calculated in mathematical ratios

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Also what about "Gann Angles"? 

Well I posted this (chart below) to my How to Win thread weeks ago

With Gann Angles you never know if they are important or until they're hit, so my personal opinion is you can't trade them willy nilly, however when a cycle is due and price is nearing one it's a ultra high probability trade with massive profit potential - I've already showed you Ganns 4th Time lucky set-up on the FTSE100 at the feb top 2020 and knowing of the cycle how you'd of stayed short into March 20

Now I've not bothered continuing researching Gann angles further as I don't really need to - the TOP pink angle on the chart - take a look where the Nasdaq100 stopped before this last weeks little tumble - that Gann angle is from the March 6th 2009 LOW!

If I can be bothered I might do a post on the mathematical relationship of swings - but it won't aid your trading ability, I just like to see all the mathematical relationships of the markets 

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One last little bit on Gann - as you can see he compiled the following timetable back in 1909 - As you can see its fairly accurate, but does get out of sync - but notice how he absolutely nailed 1987, 2007/08 etc

GannFinancialTable.gif.50f656acc16a2bb9d535e7094094fb0b.gif

Now if you've made it down to here, you will be pleased to know that you don't need to know anything about cycles, angles, financial time tables or what not - In his courses Gann mentions really basic trading methods and money management methods - THAT WORK MUCH MUCH BETTER THAN MOST OTHER METHODS OUT THERE! Also I've published these for you on my How to Win page!

I can 100% attest that by applying the very basic Gann methods you can easily make 50% per market that you trade per year risking 2% = 1R on DAILY charts and as a realistic return you'd be doing something mega wrong to not return 100% per market per year

So although there's a lot of secrecy around Gann and his methods - I'm of the opinion that you can make an absolute fortune by trading just his basic methods and I know that because I've personally and physically done it - just using simple ETF's of the FTSE100 and 250 Indexes inside my SIPP and ISA

So to conclude - I've had my misgivings and concerns about Ganns claims for years, I still have - I tested his methods though, as I've said some work and some don't, of the ones that work you can make an absolute killing with and I'd of never cracked the pattern that the markets follow if it had not been for Gann - People studying Gann though lose sight of the big picture and go off chasing the contents of The Tunnel Thru the Air  (of which to date no-one on Earth has been able to replicate) - Ganns true secret hidden in plain sight for all to use is his "Form Reading" course

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It doesn't matter what kind of edge you have, it's an edge and therefore an advantage.  I shall look up Gann's basic methods and implement them on an experimental basis with real, hard, cold cash.  Thank you for your interesting points. Am of the mind to discount and assume nothing, which makes viewing and implementing alternative market theorems easier. Some are crackpot theories, with a grain of truth (like Qanon) others perfectly functional but alternative rationale as yet unaccepted...look forward to Ganns theory. Will not get lost in the tunnel!

  • Like 1
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1 hour ago, 786Trader said:

It doesn't matter what kind of edge you have, it's an edge and therefore an advantage.  I shall look up Gann's basic methods and implement them on an experimental basis with real, hard, cold cash.  Thank you for your interesting points. Am of the mind to discount and assume nothing, which makes viewing and implementing alternative market theorems easier. Some are crackpot theories, with a grain of truth (like Qanon) others perfectly functional but alternative rationale as yet unaccepted...look forward to Ganns theory. Will not get lost in the tunnel!

Just remember a lot of his methods don't work - his form reading ones do and if you add to them and tweak them, they are very very profitable - He also mentions in his resistance levels course about the gravity centre and 50% line/level - I've adapted it from the basic course he teaches, I've got it ready to publish in my How to Win thread, I just haven't pushed submit as of yet

Yeah I agree - theres a trader and a barrister called Marc Rivilland who trades Gann as Gann details in his courses - he used to be The Trader in Investors chronicle - and that system returns him approx 15-20% per year - that is not what I'm talking about, that is just one of Gann's methods and I personally would not put in the effort trading that for 15-20%

I've published on my How to Win thread how to set risk per market, that helps to swing the R value towards you

Depends what mood I'm in, I might publish the 50% level next week or so

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10 minutes ago, dmedin said:

Save yourself the hassle...

Unless you're trying to hawk you sh!te to the plebs via PM.

If you published material that was actually helpful and useful to people your threads might be much more interesting than they are - a 5 year old can pull quotes and bits out of any old trading book - with no substance

got nothing to sell matey

You do have one thing in common with elite professional traders, very few actually make it, when you were conceived 1 just 1 tadpole out of hundreds of millions made it through - the old normality guards must have been having a nap that day or being violently sick most likely - I bet all the other hundreds of millions tadpoles just looked at each other dumb founded when you got through - you really are one unique sad excuse for a human being

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