Quoting Gann:
“Everything moves in cycles as a result of the natural law of action and reaction. By a study of the past, I have discovered what cycles repeat in the future. In order to be accurate in forecasting the future, you must know the major cycles…I have experimented and compared past markets in order to locate the major and minor cycles and determine in what years the cycles repeat in the future.“To make a success you must continue to study past records, because the market in the future will be a repetition of the past. If I have the data, I can tell by the study of cycles when a certain event will occur in the future. The limit of future predictions based on exact mathematical law is only restricted by lack of knowledge of correct data on past history to work from.”
William Delbert Gann, usually referred to as W.D. Gann, attained legendary status as a market operator on Wall Street between 1900 and 1956.
He was born in East Lufkin Texas on June 6, 1878 , which at the time was cotton-growing country. He spent his teenage years working as a cotton warehouse clerk.
In 1902, Gann began trading the stock and commodity markets. In 1908, he moved to New York City and it wasn’t long before he opened his own brokerage firm, W.D. Gann & Co, on 18th and Broadway.
His storied success began early. In the month of October 1909, while being observed by a representative of Ticker Tape Magazine (the Barron’s of the day), Mr. Gann executed 286 trades in various stocks on both the long and short side of the market. He profited on all but 22 of these trades. By the end of this 25-day period, his starting capital had increased by 1000%.
During his early career, Gann established “a world record” more than once, but he also experienced some hardship. At one point, the brokerage firm at which he carried his account was bankrupted as a result of the spectacular failure of another legendary speculator, Jesse Livermore. This would not be the only time he would have to rebound from a major setback.
As his career on Wall Street progressed, so did his following. He began to publish his “Supply & Demand” forecasts for stocks and commodities and demonstrated an uncanny ability to forecast major market turning points. His forecast of the 1929 bull market top in the stock market nine months before the high is a matter of record, having been published in his yearly forecast for 1929. Exploits such as this would earn him the titles, “Guru of Wall Street” and “Master Economic Forecaster.”
Gann was an insightful observer. As a student of the markets and human nature, he committed his life to gaining an understanding of what lay behind market movements. This pursuit led him to develop several theories that had their basis in mathematics.
To give you a sense of this man’s commitment, he traveled to England to study English price history and he also spent 10 months of deep study in New York’s Astor Library. In total, W.D. Gann devoted 10 years of his life in order to prove his theories. This was necessary because there was a much longer historic record of financial markets and price history in England compared to the relatively young U.S. markets.
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