- 1999: Volume 8, No. 4 Lost Gann: What's Missing?

The questions from yesteryear are the same ones today-was he the greatest market mind ever? Was he overrated by his own PR machine? Was he misunderstood? Or was it that he could not be understood? Somewhere along the way most market people encounter the William D. Gann enigma; importantly though, they can turn to a wealth of knowledge in his books, his courses, and especially one very revealing 1909 magazine interview-all unmatchable legacies.

There can be no denying his mystical bent which, unless respected and adjusted for, makes understanding the Gann legacies a difficult task. But no serious market student can ever claim to be just that if they bypass the writings and words of he who is almost indisputably the greatest of market masters. This especially applies to studying his Stock and Commodity Courses which contain the cream-of-cream of the best of Gann. The same market students will find the ultimate cream-Gann's 1909 interview in The Ticker. When viewed as a whole, these legacies comprise the most powerful analytical market supremacy ever.

About the Man

There are too many stories about the man to include here, however, a few are worth noting. The most notable is the contention that he took $50,000,000 from the markets in his lifetime. His own son, John L. Gann, said emphatically that he did not. Coming from one's son, that's an indictment hard to overcome, but to be fair to W. D. we have to consider a wider picture. John L. was the son of a famous stockmarket personality who also was a genius. The offspring of geniuses seldom ever rise to or above their parent's genius level. John L., we know, in the 1940s joined his father in business, but they eventually split up. After that he turned to stockbroking relying only on fundamental analysis-not the analytical methods of his father. The fact that Gann, Sr. married three times may indicate a lack of family stability and fatherly attention. Having personally seen the voluminous number of charts he kept up, he had to have spent 36 hours a day in market research; putting out the market services he offered; editing his Supply and Demand Marketletter; writing his books and courses, his Annual Forecasts and much more; plus trading also. This must have left little time for non-market activities. In light of their falling out, John appears to have come out of it with bitterness.

A Wealth of Source Material

In 1976 the late Billy Jones of Pomeroy Washington bought from Gann's partner, Ed Lambert, the Lambert-Gann Publishing Co., its entire inventory of Gann books, and many of Gann's personal papers and charts. Billy did an admirable job (now equally carried on by his wife Nikki) of bringing Gann, his books, and his work to increased investor awareness. When I visited Billy in 1979 I saw a huge number of charts in Gann's unmistakable penmanship, along with many of his personal things. Among the papers he sorted out, he found a $3,000,000 Trust that Mr. Gann had set up for one of his daughters. I think the existance of this Trust can possibly be taken as evidence that Gann made millions in his lifetime. The renowned Richard D. Wyckoff wrote that in 25 market days, Gann made 286 transactions in his presence, long and short, of which 264 were profitable. Applying this rate of success to the number of trades made over Gann's lifetime takes the "millions" game to higher levels.

Today We Barely Scratch the Surface

Standardized Gann applications are a norm in many computer analysis programs today. The reality, however, is that their Gann basis is a very minor portion of the true Gann. To just begin to understand Gann's tremendous analytical basis, there is only one path to tread-the December 1909 issue of The Ticker magazine and its Gann interview (available by E-mail from this writer).

1908-1909 were the monumental years when Wall Street and W. D. Gann came together, a number of months after the mighty 1907 Panic. In that period a market star was born and such was the tremendous impression that he made on the financial scene, its leading magazine The Ticker had to interview this new phenomenon. This called for the most able and knowledgeable of interviewers and that is exactly what Mr. Gann got-The Ticker's owner, editor, and one of the all-time greatest of technical market minds-Richard D. Wyckoff-not one that would ever be taken in by some phonybaloney. With W. D. new to Wall Street and innocent in some ways, he revealed unhesitatingly during the interview what really is the Gann Theory-and it has nothing to do with the way that term is used today.

That interview provides the key to true Gann theory, and that key is what Gann succinctly calls "the law of vibration"-his central evolution. Further reading of Gann material adds the associated "laws" to the law of vibration-the law of proportion, the law of balance, and the law of opposites. These laws, above all, are what constitutes Gann analysis; others of his vital concepts are extensions and variations.

The only viable conclusion after reading this interview is that there is a tremendous gulf between that which is real Gann and today's representations.

The Corruption of "True" Gann

Looking at the "flip side" of true Gann, which today seems to be all around us, we have to recognize that there are many using the man's name and making all sorts of associations and connections with it. Most are sincere in their stances and nothing should be taken away from them in the periphery. But we cannot get away from that which solely and centrally constitutes the Gann experience-the law of vibration. Therefore, be not deceived. If any presenter of anything to do with Gann cannot demonstrate a great familiarity with his Law of Vibration, then their knowledge of "real Gann" is totally without foundation in the light of the man's own words.

Comparatively, should any reader think today's computer presented so-called Gann angles, so-called Gann lines, and so-called Gann 50 percent retracement techniques, in the way they are used, are Gann analysis except in the most minor of applications, then a permanent stay on Fantasy Island beckons. The irony is that these three Gann techniques do have tremendous meaning, but nowhere near today's commonplace simplistic thinking and usage. With true Gann, if it is simplistic, forget it, for in no way is Gann analysis simplistic.

But it has to be explained that after reading all Mr. Gann says on this "Law", even after 100, 200, 300 and more readings, the reader in all probability will still be in the dark as to what the law of vibration" is. It really is that perplexing, though not impossible.

To expect W. D. to just give away that which constitutes probably the most advanced analytical market thinking of all time is to denigrate the man's market intelligence. Though it is not at all obvious, when the Gann light does break through, there comes the realization that with every single important concept he ever presented, he only gave us the starting points. We have to do the development ourselves. Having wrestled with this Law for many years, with Mr. Gann no longer with us, there is no way to know if my interpretation was Gann's. But the effort devoted to the pursuit of the solution to this enigma, is more than worth it.

Gann Angles

Consider the burden that Gann's success bought. Put yourself in his shoes-he's famous in his field, his record is magnificent, his knowledge of profiting in stock and commodity markets has to be highly prized. Would he be pestered by people eager to know his market methods so they also could get on the easy road to riches? You bet he was-constantly! What would you do? The same as he did-refer them to his writings. Give everybody some solid stuff that is quite good, then let them get on with this material in their investing and trading. And that is what most of his published techniques are-they're straightforward and produce worthwhile results giving everybody their money's worth. And importantly to him-they kept them off his back!

Thus he came up with angle usage for "measuring time and price movements," as he says. The angles are easy to plot and they work enough times to be valuable. But Mr. Gann was an honorable man. There was an obligation with this methodology for him to make one vital thing known about his angles.

But exactly just what did Mr Gann write about angles? For anyone with an original Gann course, if they will turn to the first page of the section titled The Basis of My Forecasting Method, looking at line 10 from the bottom; they will read the following quote. "There are three kinds of angles-the vertical, the horizontal, and the diagonal, which we use for measuring time and price movements." Today every usage called "Gann angles" uses "diagonal angles" only. Yet the Master says we must use all three angles-the vertical angle, the horizontal angle, the diagonal Angle. Definitely not the last and least important, the diagonal angle alone.

I am amazed practically nobody seems to have noticed his comprehensive statement about them in his courses. The conclusion has to be that there's a lot more to Gann's use of angles than today's users ever dreamed of.

When one ponders his references to "dimension" and to "opposites", there's a richness of material here which is vital to Gann thinking, yet hardly anybody seems to have latched on to it.

So the message to those who have any involvement with any usage of Gann's angles which are solely diagonal ones is this: they must either add the vital two other angles, the horizontal angl" and the vertical angle or call the tool anything they wish as long as W. D. Gann's name is removed from the description. In respect to the greatness of the man, the angle techniques carrying his name today are substantially not his. He more than deserves the removal of his name from this corruption proven by his writings not really in total to be so.

Like everybody else, unfortunately, the suppliers of hundreds of computer analysis programs having been influenced by their limited Gann education, genuinely believe they're using exactly what Gann wrote about angles. Actually, they barely come close at best.

Donald Mack in the 1980s in L.A. offered the only specialist bookstore for new and old market books in the U.S. He specialized in pre-1960 Technical Analysis classics (by Gann, Schabacker, Wyckoff, Cole, etc.), writings he considers superior in many ways to those post-1960. An intense student of TA, he now works with Financial Times Prentice Hall Publishing of London, England bringing back great and mostly unknown pre-1960 TA and other classics. Books available now-Schabacker's Technical Analysis & Stock Market Profits 1932 (greatest book ever on TA); Dunnigan's New Blueprints & One-Way Formula 1957; Cole's Graphs & Their Application to Speculation 1936; Wetsel's A Course in Trading 1934; Bayer's George Wollsten: Expert Stock & Grain Trader, 1946; Redmond's Stock Market Operators, 1924; Angas' Investment for Appreciation, 1936; Schabacker's Stock Market Profits, 1934. He can be reached at Dmack144@aol.com.