In 1954 at the age of 76 W.D. Gann wrote a booklet titled “Why Money is Lost on Commodities And Stocks And How to Make Profits”.
He was at an age where he was probably thinking about his legacy.The booklet covers a selection of highlights from his career and a timeline starting on page one.
The fourth item on the list states that he made one of his greatest discoveries, a mathematical discovery for predicting the trend of stocks and commodities.
on August 8, 1908.
This final booklet from W.D. Gann is the first time (that I know of) that he ever mentioned this particular date. Regardless it is highly unlikely that Gann made his discovery on August 8, 1908.
When reading this particular text the majority of people would be drawn to started trading with a capital of $300 and made $25,000. Started another account with $130 and made $12,000 in thirty days time, rather than the dates of when he started his journey and ended it.
W.D. Gann is well known for placing quite important pieces of information in a very casual way as well as encoding information in text.
1908 May 12th left Oklahoma City for New York City. August 8th made one of his greatest mathematical discoveries for predicting the trend of stocks and commodities. Started trading with a capital of $300 and made $25,000. Started another account with $130 and made $12,000 in thirty days time.
August is the 8th month.
08-08-1908
Also Gann said that he’d left Oklahoma City for New York City on May 12.
If you are familiar with how Gann counts dates the 1st day is always uncounted so he would began counting on May 13.
May 13 to and including August 8 is 88 days.
88 days is quite a long time to travel from Oklahoma to New York.
What is W.D. Gann trying to tell his readers by introducing the number 88?
As usual with everything Gann the real answer is quite simple if you know enough about Gann’s core principles.
W.D. Gann’s number one principal is that the future is a repetition of the past.
Everything repeats in some form or another.
In other words everything is cyclical.
What is so special about 88 days is that it is the average rotation of the planet Mercury.
Mercury completes one cycle around the Sun every 88 days and comes back to the same degree of the circle.
Mercury was at 79° of the circle on May 12 1908 and by August 8 1908. It had traveled 360° and was back at 79°
What follows is some evidence to back up this theory that Gann was writing about the cycle of Mercury.
In 1954 W.D. Gann wrote to his students the following letter that described how he was using market cycles based on the rotation of the planets when they came back to the original position that they were in when markets made highs or lows.
Here is a brief excerpt of Gann’s letter:
May Coffee Santos D.
GEOCENTRIC MAPS MOVEMENTS from low prices on coffee.
1931 April 16th to August 7 1953- Mars has made 12 round trips.
1954 October 29- Mars will be opposite or 180 degrees from its place on April 16 1931.
1936 October 1st to September 19th 1953- Mars made 9 round trips of 360 degrees each.
1954 Dec 9th- Mars will be 9 and a half round trips or opposite its place Oct 1, 1936.
1940 May 15 to June 12 1953- Mars made 7 round trips or complete cycles.
1954 April 9th – Mars is 7 and a half cycles and is opposite its place on May 15 1940.
Due to the retrograde position of Mars it will again be 7 and a half, (cycles) July 7th and Aug 17 1954 or the third time in opposition to its own place which is very important.
1940 August 19, to September 15, 1953- Mars had completed 7 round trips. Note low on coffee at that date.
This is a big picture technique and you need some additional tools to get closer to the actual day.
In summary I want to be clear that W.D. Gann was not saying that Mercury is the important cycle.
This was just a way for Gann without being obvious to demonstrate an example of a planet cycle and embed it in the text is a natural way.
W.D. Gann looking back over his career in his 76th year was really writing that planet cycles were one of his greatest discoveries.