If W. D. Gann Had a Secret...

...we do not know it. From all the released information I have gained access to, it appears to me that Gann likely took his ultimate secret to the grave. And what might that be? Perhaps the method to know with virtually 100% certainty the price of the next major top or bottom and what day it would occur.

So then, why do I often talk highly about W. D. Gann, praising his methods? Because what I have learned from the information that is available to us today, secrets or no secrets, has opened the door to several fantastic and incredible discoveries of my own.

Credit must be given where credit is due. If the legends such as W. D. Gann did not print what they did, regardless whether their motive was purely for profit or partly altruistic reasons, it would have made many current discoveries or understandings about market behavior so much harder to come by.

When we read about the exploits of W. D. Gann, we are reminded about his remarkable Wheat call in the beginning of the 20th Century before a writer of The Ticker and Investment Digest. We're reminded that he had a knack for turning a small amount of money into a much larger one in a short period of time.

"One of the most astonishing calculations made by Mr Gann was during last summer [1909] when he predicted that September Wheat would sell at $1.20. This meant that it must touch that figure before the end of the month of September. At twelve o'clock, Chicago time, on September 30th (the last day) the option was selling below $1.08, and it looked as though his prediction would not be fulfilled.

Mr Gann said, 'If it does not touch $1.20 by the close of the market it will prove that there is something wrong with my whole method of calculation. I do not care what the price is now, it must go there.' It is common history that September Wheat surprised the whole country by selling at $1.20 and no higher in the very last hour of trading, closing at that figure."

"During the month of October, 1909, in twenty-five market days, Mr Gann made, in the presence of our representative, two hundred and eighty-six transactions in various stocks, on both the long and short side of the market. Two hundred and sixty-four of these transactions resulted in profits ; twenty-two in losses."

The fact that W. D. Gann is a legend is without dispute. His popularity continues to grow year after year. And with such exposure, with both the myth and facts intertwined, debates go on about whether he became wealthy from trading or from selling books and courses. In fact, debates about whether he died wealthy to begin with continue unabated.

I am convinced that W. D. Gann did in fact hold many of the secrets to forecasting market tops and bottoms, and that he did not disclose his most potent. And I am also convinced that he did share enough information, albeit spread out in metaphors, that anyone serious enough for the undertaking can glean enough to improve his or her market timing abilities several times over.

My becoming convinced was first one of logic. You see, whether W. D. Gann became wealthy from trading or selling books and courses does not take anything away from his genius. It is a fact that W. D. Gann sold courses and seminars that cost the price of a single family home in those times. Only a man with recognized genius could pull that off. Who today, praised in the trading industry, can put together a seminar or course for the price of a home? No one.

Now while this logic helped convince me of the legitimacy of W. D. Gann, it also helped me to at least consider his printed works with enough seriousness to actually get something out of it. And boy was that the right move!

In the last 6 years I have scoured much of what I could get my hands on about W. D. Gann and his teachings. I have read his inexpensive books as well as his extensive (and more expensive) trading course. I've searched the web from top to bottom looking for any bits and pieces that I could find. Bottom line: this man was in fact a genius.

I'm pretty sure that what I have gathered from my research is but only a fraction of what the man had to offer. Perhaps someone out there has under lock and key the last whispers of a dying genius. Who really knows? But from what I have gleaned, in its obvious limited quantities, was enough to open so many amazing doors for me in the field of market analysis and forecasting that I will always be indebted to Mr. Gann and others like him.

The Gann Wheel, also known as the Square of Nine, is an amazing tool. It has been sold and oversold for years. Many ignore it as nothing more than a useless product to put money in the pockets of those selling it. Oh what foolishness abounds! Although I've long gone beyond the use of this tool for forecasting, it opens up your mind to the amazing mysteries of the universe. It is like everything around us can be explained by mathematics, as each thing appears to be related to something else.

Oh I can wax poetic for a long time on this. But I'm sure you would rather I stay on point. With the Square of Nine, you can with a good amount of practice get to the point of doing many forecasts with incredible accuracy. Perhaps you won't know the exact price of Wheat or Live Cattle for any particular day. But then, perhaps you can. I've found the tool to be a nice compliment to working with prices in order to arrive at a set of resistance or support prices for a given day, rather than stand on a soapbox and state for certain that Corn will go to 205 and not a tick more. That kind of information would be great to know, but it isn't necessary in order to profit in trading.

In my arsenal for forecasting the markets are several tools that are used to forecast time and price. Each I have a different level of confidence in. Over the years, I have learned to use all the tools at the proper time based on circumstances to make many incredible market forecasts. Of course my goal is to achieve a 100% accuracy with 100% consistency. Without such a goal I would simply sit on my hands and discovery would stop for me personally. While reaching such a goal would be considered by virtually everyone as impossible, and perhaps so, you should never convince yourself of that if you wish to excel beyond the masses.

W. D. Gann had his secrets and he likely died taking some pretty good ones to the grave with him. And we know he wasn't 100% accurate with 100% consistency because we read that he won x number of trades out of y trades. Astounding accomplishment, even is not 100% perfect. But I have no doubt that W. D. Gann ever thought that he would not be able to achieve that lofty goal. To achieve any real success requires that you believe you can achieve the impossible. In reality, nothing is impossible to achieve. Only two things usually get in the way of you achieving the ultimate goal; you and time.

If you believe, you can achieve. Only TIME cuts the course short. We simply run out of time and pass away, and that is what happened to W. D. Gann. If W. D. Gann were alive today, he would be much closer to achieving the impossible. Anyone of us who believes the goal is attainable and puts aside any negative thoughts of failure, who puts in the effort to support the thought, will achieve much but will eventually be cut short by TIME. But it is no reason to give up.

Anytime we pick up the great works of a legend such as W. D. Gann, we help extend his time. We take what we glean from Gann and others like him and move it forward toward the ultimate goal. As we study and research with earnest and sincerity, we open new doors of discovery for future generations if those new discoveries, in whole or in part, are shared. This sharing may be dispensed in fragments among many books and perhaps seminars. Whether the motive of sharing be for profit or some altruistic reasons, each piece of the puzzle will contribute to the overall puzzle that could one day be yours.

Perhaps W. D. Gann did not die with his secret after all, for it may be what he has encouraged all along...to never stop learning and to believe.