W.D. Gann – 45 Years In Wall Street

Very good book for the stock trader. Summery given in initial pages gives a good insight about the writer and his knowledge

not nearly as readable as wyckoff’s ventures and adventures over 40 years. too much space devoted to abstracts of stock movements. there is a mystical core in gann’s theories which is difficult to understand and accept in current market methodology.

The first thing you must understand is that Gann was not a trader. He came from a farming background and had a good understanding of crops, which he initially used to make money in grain futures. However, after a very short period the luck soon ran out, the losses mounted and his trading career was over.

This is when he started writing, which is something he was good at and never seemed to stop. It is also how he made a modest living along with public speaking and seminars. There are endless amounts of published work by Gann, but to me nothing of any significance. When you look at successful traders almost all of them are anonymous private people who never publish work.

This book is very unexciting with little detail of events or trading knowledge as you would expect form a journalist, probably the worst book on trading I have ever seen. My three words of advice for you are, don’t buy it!

Very important book for trading and investing one time must read this book if u want to became good stock trader.

“45 Years in Wall Street” was actually Gann’s last book, written in 1949 (he issued a revised edition of his commodities book in 1951), in which he presents the final version of his cycles-based system. Since cycles can extend, shorten, invert, and skip, Gann offers several trend-following methods to minimize damage from forecasting mistakes and to keep one on the right side of the markets. His excellent, 24 trading rules afford advice on money management, risk management, trend-following, trade entry, and exit techniques that are currently valid.

Gann always openly hinted that the details for his celebrated forecasting method were concealed in his writings. This book, as is all others written by Gann, is written on two levels. The first level is expository and describes how to swing-trade. The arcana submerged in the second level can be approached by examining the recurrent themes about time, price, and geometry, and the dates which he feels are significant. Details for Gann’s time and price model are contained in all of his books and major courses with the exception of “Tunnel Through the Air.”

Strangely, the weakest part of this book is the final chapter with Gann’s predictions for the early 1950s. Gann felt that 1953 was going to be a year of post-war depression rivalling the great depression of the 1930s. His cycle model indicated a strong down-turn which actually became a cyclical inversion where the market turned sharply upwards – such are the hazards of public forecasting! However, Gann followers should not have lost money during the 1953 inversion, because their swing-trade methods would have self-corrected this forecast error.

Whatever level one chooses to tackle, this book is a worthwhile addition to anyone’s trading library.

This book was written in 1949. By all means what put forth by Gann as the 12 and the 24 rules are still valid today. In fact, his ideas are still being copied in simply all other trading books. Even the diary like section in Soros’ Alchemy of Fianance did resembled the style of a majority part of this book. In short, a must read for any trader!
Remark: One might think that I am a crazy Gann friend. To justifiy the title I put for this review, I would like to summarize Gann’s 12 and 24 rules for one’s reference:-
The 12 rules:-
1. Determine the trend
2. Buy at single, double and triple bottoms
3. Buy and sell on percentages
4. Buy and sell on 3 weeks’ advance or decline
5. Market moves in sections/waves
6. Buy or sell on 5 to 7 point moves
7. Study volume to determine change in trend
8. Study time factor and time periods to determine change in trend. (p.s. when a time period on a decline exceeds that of a previous decline, it indicates a change in trend)
9. Buy on higher tops and bottoms
10. A change in trend often occurs just before or after holidays. (p.s. when prices are at high levels there are usually several swings up and down, then when the market breaks the low of the last swing it indicates a reversal and change in trend)
11. Buy on a second reaction at a higher bottom. When it reacts only 2 days, it is in a very strong position.
12. Price gains in fast moves does not last very long.
The 24 rules:-
1. Never risk one tenth of capital in one trade.
2. Always use stop loss orders.
3. Never overtrade.
4. Never let a profit run into a loss.
5. Do not buck the trend.
6. When in doubt, get our or dont get in.
7. Trade only active stocks.
8. Equal distribution of risk in 4 or 5 stocks.
9. Trade market order.
10. Dont clsoe your trades without a good reason.
11. Accumulate a surplus
12. Never buy just to get a dividend.
13. Never average a loss.
14. Never get out/in of the market because of impatience or anxiety.
15. Avoid taking small profits and big losses.
16. Never cancel a stop loss order after you placed it.
17. Avoid getting in and out of the market too often.
18. Be just as willing to seel short as you are to buy. Let your object be to keep with the trend and make money.
19. Never buy/sell just because the price is low/high.
20. Wait till the stock is very active and has crossed resistance levels before pyramiding.
21. Select stocks with small volume of shares outstanding to pyramid on the buying side.
22. Never hedge one stock by another.
23. Trade with a plan and do not get out without a definite indication of a change in trend.
24. Avoid increasing trading size after a long period of success.

A bit dated but some pearls can be extracted.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a very quick read, but you will find yourself referring to it time and time again. This book is truly worth “millions”, imvho.

This book by Gann talks about the historical movements in the U.S. stock market. His premise is that we need to know history because “nothing is new under the sun,” and what happened in the past will give us clues to future movements. I learned more in this small book than I have in expensive trading courses.