WD Gann was arguably one of the best technical traders and analysts who ever lived. He is known to have taken millions of dollars out of the market during the Great Crash of 1929-1933 and has achieved cult status among technical analysts and traders alike.

But how did WD Gann do it? What were his methods? Many people believe that he relied solely on esoteric methods such as financial astrology and numerology. Gann was undoubtedly an expert in these areas. He often referred to the planets in his courses and private letters. He also referred to the number squares he created based on the number of letters, for example, from the words “New York Stock Exchange” to predict key market turning points.

However, WD Gann also made statements such as “Geometric Angles, The Basis of My Forecasting Method” and even titled certain sections of his Master Courses in Stocks and Commodities in this way. But what did he mean by this? Was WD Gann relying solely on geometric principles in his predictions? How could these methods be applied?

WD Gann believed that financial markets, like most things in the world, were built on the principles of natural law. Like atoms, molecules, and matter that form crystals at certain precise geometric angles, he believed that financial markets were no different. He assumed that markets made turning points relative to precise geometric angles.

Some go further by saying that what Gann was referring to were the astrological aspects. His charting methods were based on geometry and scale charts to balance price and time. Gann most likely did this to correlate the geometric charts with the planetary cyclical factors he was employing.

Regardless of your belief about what WD Gann was really doing, one thing is for sure. Gann was a master forecaster and trader, and his legacy will live on in his writings.

Gann’s open method for plotting prices over time is to make one unit of time equal to one unit of price. So on a weekly chart this means for a stock charting price action at $1 per 1 week of time. In this way, the geometric angle formed by a swing can be calculated using trigonometry.

But what about Gann’s comments in his Cotton Course that $0.15 per day and $0.30 per month should be used? This opens up a whole new door of speculation in terms of how to scale your charts. The answer here is that WD Gann was setting a “vibration rate” for the cotton market. He was effectively saying that $0.15 was the central unit of vibration for cotton.

There are methods available in which Gann’s principles can be used to establish the rate of vibration of a market. But that’s a topic for another article, or even a video.