WD Gann – A Stock & Commodity Trading Legend
WD Gann. Who is he and what is it about his Trading that still maintains the mystique and legendary status around his Trading so many decades since his death in 1955? Was WD Gann really “the best trader” who ever lived, as many of his followers continue to believe and insist, or just an elaborate fake?
Mr. William Delbert Gann was a trader who lived across the latter part of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th. Thus he directly experienced the Panic of 1907, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 (which he predicted in advance), and the Great Depression that followed, during which the Dow Jones lost 95% of its value.
WD Gann’s reputation is based on his outstanding trading record, which seems truly magical and totally impossible to anyone unfamiliar with his methods. His contention that financial market movements are based on precise mathematics seems totally out of odds in this modern infinite parameter world where econometric models seemingly reign supreme and so many so-called experts are more than happy to tout their ill-founded opinions on any TV financial show that will have them.
By contrast, Gann’s approach was to do nothing and say nothing that he had not previously tested through exhaustive research. Although nobody really knows anything like all of his secrets, it is this rigorous mental discipline that doubtless accounts for some of the truly astonishing feats attributed to him, which leave modern market forecasters in the dust.
The most famous is the summer of 1909, when he predicted that September Wheat would sell at $1.20, which meant that it must touch that level before the close of September and the contract’s expiry. Well, at 12 o’clock on the last day, the option was trading below $1.08 and it seemed extremely unlikely that his prediction would ever be fulfilled. Undeterred, WD Gann stated categorically, “If it does not touch $1.20 by the close of the market, it will prove there is something wrong with my whole method of calculation. I do not care what the price is now, it must go there.”
Of course, it is now a matter of history that September Wheat stunned the financial community by selling at $1.20 and not a cent higher within the last hour of the day and indeed closed at that figure!
There are many more fascinating anecdotes about Gann’s trading, from his practice of drawing charts of stock market movements for the year ahead in advance, through to his being scientifically tested by observers over several hundred consecutive trades to have a trading accuracy rate of around 95%! He sold his Trading courses in the 1950’s for $5000 each, which would be akin to $50,000 in today’s terms.
WD Gann’s methods, all of them extremely esoteric and abstruse, have spawned a wealth of books, software programs and weird looking number wheels and charts. Like all legends, his popularity remains timeless. In every generation, there are numerous Gann traders who seek to study his materials, poring over every word for that word or phrase that will finally unlock the vault of his secrets. Nobody has completely succeeded in doing so yet.
Like the great esoteric masters of the Ancient World, WD Gann wrote in a coded language; one set of meanings for the simple and another for the initiated. However, there are relatively few, if any of the latter, and it looks as if he took many of his most powerful secrets with him to the grave.
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Category: Finance/Stock Market Investing
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