The Remarkable WD Gann
Written by John L. Gann Jr.
Grandson of W.D. Gann
If you were a businessman traveling through Texas in 1891, you could have purchased a newspaper and a couple of cigars from a tall, lanky 13-year-old aboard your train. And as you discussed investments with your fellow travelers, you may have spotted the teenager eagerly listening in on your chat.
If you had questioned him, he may have stated that his name was Willy and that he was indeed interested in commodities. His father was a farmer in Angelina County, as was nearly everyone he knew. They were all concerned about the price they would receive for their cotton. And had you asked young Willy if he wished to continue tilling the East Texas soil as he grew older, he could have responded no, he didn’t believe so: he desired a career as a businessman. “Well, young Willy, best of luck,” you may have said. “Perhaps you will one day own your own firm, or perhaps become renowned. Who is to say? Nobody has the ability to forecast the future.” William Delbert Gann was the young eavesdropper who walked up and down the aisles of that train. Perhaps he questioned if it was indeed true that no one can anticipate the future.
On June 6, 1878, W. D Gann was born on a farm about seven miles outside of Lufkin, Texas. He was the firstborn of Sam Houston Gann and Susan R. Gann’s eleven children, two girls and eight males. The Ganns lived in an overcrowded house with no indoor plumbing and little else. They were impoverished, and young Willy spent three years walking the seven miles into Lufkin to attend school.
However, the family placed a higher premium on the job he could do on the farm, and as a result, W. D. never graduated from elementary school or attended high school. As the eldest son, he had a special responsibility, and his years laboring on the farm may have laid the groundwork for a lifelong commitment to hard work. His religious upbringing as a Baptist may have played a role as well, as his faith remained with him throughout his life.
W.D. worked in a brokerage in Texarkana a few years later and attended night business school. He married Rena May Smith, and the couple had two daughters, Macie and Nora, in the early years of the new century. At the age of 25, W.D. made the disastrous move to New York City.
W.D. changed his life in other ways as well, most likely while working at a large Wall Street firm. He divorced his Texas bride and married a 19-year-old colleen named Sarah Hannify in 1908. W.D. and Sadie had two children: Velma in 1909 and John, W.D.’s sole son, six years later. Additionally, Macie and Nora moved in with their father and were raised by their Irish stepmother in New York.
The family relocated from Manhattan to Brooklyn during the First World War, first to Bay Ridge and subsequently to Flatbush. W. D. apparently prophesied the Kaiser’s abdication on November 9, 1918, and the end of the war. However, it was following the armistice when the Ganns of Brooklyn’s fortunes took a drastic change. The W. D. that traders are familiar with today originated during the Roaring Twenties.
W. D. Gann left his employment and struck out on his own in 1919, at the age of 41. He then spent the remainder of his years establishing his own firm. He began producing the Supply and Demand Letter, a daily market newsletter. The letter covered both equities and commodities and provided annual projections to its subscribers. W.D. had developed an interest in forecasting. The little firm grew, and three years later, W.D. Gann purchased a small house on Fenimore Street in Brooklyn, his adopted home. The market letter stimulated more daring publishing. In 1924, W.D. wrote his first book, Truth of the Stock Tape.
A seminal work on chart reading, it is still widely recognized as the best book on the subject. W.D., an independent thinker and a diligent worker, self-published Truth through his own Financial Guardian Publishing Company. He developed his own advertisements and lobbied with bookstores to have it carried. The Wall Street Journal lauded Truth and it sold well for years. According to some, it is the best of his numerous works. It was a tremendous accomplishment for a first attempt.
During the 1920s, his market forecasts were approximately 85 percent accurate. However, W. D.’s predictions were not limited to prices. He was generally reputed to have prophesied Wilson and Harding’s election victories, as well as the victories of every president since 1904. W. D. Gann authored what is arguably his most remarkable novel, the 1927 Tunnel Through the Air, at the age of 49. It is a piece of prophetic fiction, not a genre in which every Wall Street analyst dabbles. However, W.D. Gann was unique. Perhaps the book is best recognized for foreseeing Japan’s attack on the United States and a subsequent air war between the two nations. Though Tunnel offered little to investors, it garnered widespread attention and bolstered its author’s burgeoning fame.
The market in the 1920’s appeared to be defying gravity, but W.D. Gann believed it could not persist indefinitely. In his 1929 prognosis, he projected that the market would continue to make new highs until early April, then take a steep break before resuming new highs until September 3. Then it would peak, followed by the largest market crash in history. We are all aware of what occurred.
Gann flourished during the Depression, which he correctly predicted would end in 1932. He obtained trading positions on several commodities exchanges, traded for his own account, and authored Wall Street Stock Selector in 1930 and New Stock Trend Detector in 1936. He continued to make astonishingly precise prophecies, as well as some less accurate ones, such as FDR’s electoral defeat. He found a new interest in Florida real estate investing. He established himself as a small-scale home builder in Miami and also acquired a block of retailers on the Tamiami Trail.
Additionally, he became airborne. In 1932, he purchased a plane to enable him to fly over crop fields and collect data for his projections. Elinor Smith, a renowned 21-year-old aviator, was hired to fly him about. The uniqueness of his high-flying research—W.D. was the first to conduct this type of market analysis—aided in keeping him in the public eye.
John Gann, the son of W. D. Gann, entered the securities company in 1936 at the age of 21. He worked for his father for a year before Uncle Sam announced in 1941 that he had plans for the young man in Europe. Sadie suffered from health problems for some time after returning to Brooklyn and died in 1942 at the age of 53. Then, after twenty years on Fenimore Street, an elderly W.D. Gann relocated to Miami for health and personal reasons. The following year, he published How to Profit from Commodities.
He continued to operate his firm out of New York, relying on his long-serving personal secretary. In Miami, he continued to analyze the market, trade, and engage in real estate, as well as train pupils. The following year, at the age of 65, when most people consider retirement, W.D. decided to marry and married a much younger woman.
John temporarily worked in New York after the war on W. D. Gann’s business, then left to pursue his own interests in the Industry. Their approaches to the market were diametrically opposed. Until his death in 1984, John L. Gann enjoyed a successful career with Wall Street’s top brokerage houses.
Gann began to relax in the postwar years. In 1949, he wrote 45 Years on Wall Street. He sold his business to Joseph Lederer, another market student. Simultaneously, he sold the rights to all of his books to Edward Lambert. He continued to study, teach, and trade, however. In 1950, he was inducted into the International Mark Twain Society as an honorary member.
He died of a heart attack in 1954. A year later, it was determined that she had advanced stomach cancer. Doctors operated, but W. D. Gann died. He died in June 1955, when he was 77 years old. He was buried with his second wife in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, facing Wall Street. It was an appropriate place, given he had spent his adult life studying the Street.
In 1995, 40 years after his death, William D. Gann continues to be discussed, written about, and researched with zeal. It is a remarkable testament to his work, one that even W.D. could not have foreseen. Alternatively, could he? What lessons might this amazing man’s life contain?
To begin, an endorsement of the American Dream is necessary. Gann, of Lufkin, Texas, began with nothing. He and his family were impoverished, lacked education, and lacked possibilities. However, fewer than 40 years after overhearing businesspeople conversing on railroad wagons in Texas, W.D. Gann became internationally famous.
Second, diligence pays off. W. D. Gann was a man who rose early, worked late, and tackled his business with vigor. Almost all of his education was self-directed. This educator, author, and perceptive forecaster received a third-grade education. However, he never ceased reading.
Thirdly, unusual thought may offer certain advantages. W.D. possessed an unusual amount of academic curiosity. He was fearless when it came to unconventional ideas, whether in finance or other spheres of life. He wasn’t always correct—none of us are—but he dared to follow a more rational course of action.
Fourth, perhaps there is something to this whole clean living thing after all. As a strict Baptist, W.D. abstained from smoking, drinking, playing cards, and dancing. He had a solemn temperament and a conservative clothing sense, however he did lighten up little in his later years. He understood the value of a dollar and was thrifty with his personal finances. Not every internationally renowned seer would remain in a tiny Brooklyn cottage.
Fifth, faith is beneficial. W. D. Gann spent his entire life studying the Bible. It was the Book of Books, as he referred to it. His own final novel, The Magic Word, released in 1950, exemplifies this commitment.
Finally, the sole lesson I will offer traders is that W.D. Gann never ceased studying the market. Even when his predictions came true and he gained international renown. While he believed in cycles, he also recognized that markets are constantly changing and that judgments must be taken in light of current conditions, not those from yesterday.
W.D. may have sat back on his laurels. However, he continued to study and seek better understanding. If he couldn’t afford to stop, how can any trader?
