William Gann died in 1955, in his last published book called '45 Years in Wall Street' two years before his death he never mentions astrology.
We have been playing detective!
However the Gann astrology folks refer to his novel called 'Tunnel thru the Air' and Gann letters as proof that Gann was deep into astrology trading. There are third party references of Gann trading abilities before 1930, but there is little evidence of Gann trading success after this. There are no broker accounts showing trading success using astrology. Why?
After a period of investigation this explanation may explain why William Gann was secretive about his purpose of astrology.
Extract from InvestingSuccess.ca
You see, back in the days when W.D.Gann, was making his money on the markets there were some very strict laws in effect in many of the eastern US states. These laws were a carry-over from the days of the Salem witch trials. More specifically, these laws I speak of expressly forbade people to make money using Astrology or occult methods. In fact, I am told that some of the States still had these laws in effect into the early 1970s.
It is my long held contention that W.D. Gann used Astrology in his trading activity. However, given the strict laws on the books forbidding people to make money using such techniques, W.D. Gann had to be ultra-cautious.
He could not walk down the streets in New York telling people that he was using Astrology as part of his trading strategy. To run afoul of one of these strict laws would surely have meant a jail vist back in Gann's time. He therefore had to carefully disguise his trading methodology. And he did so by introducing people to concepts such as the Square of Nine, the Square of 144 and the Wheel of 24. He also resorted to simply stating specific dates to watch for, knowing that it was highly unlikely any of his subscribers would challenge him.
The author of the above statement is Malcom Bucholtz and is an astrology trader (main site, and blog).
Astrology today is split between two forms VEDIC and WESTERN. The difference between the two is this:
The basic difference between the two systems is that the Vedic zodiac is Sidereal and the Western is Tropical. In Sidereal astrology, the zodiac is aligned with 27 constellations, or fixed star groups. Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, aligns with the first constellation, called Aswini. In the tropical zodiac, the point in space when the Sun crosses the earth's equator is the beginning point of the zodiac, or Aries.
The earth's equator shifts backward through the signs of the zodiac at the rate of about 51" of longitude per year. This is called "precession of the equinoxes." Because of this phenomenon, the theoretical Aries of the western zodiac drifts further and further from the Aries used by Vedic astrologers -- at the rate of about 1 degree every 72 years.
The tropical (Western), and the Vedic Aries were on the same zodiacal plane around 285 AD. Because of the precession of the equinoxes, at present, there is approximately a 23 degree difference. Thus all of the planets in a Vedic horoscope, including the rising sign, will be about 23 zodiacal degrees earlier than they would be in a Western chart.
and...
The times of life events are shown through a detailed system of planetary time cycles, called "dashas." There is no corresponding method in Western astrology. Western astrologers who make a study of it, often find themselves converting to Vedic astrology because of its greater scope, depth and accuracy for predicting the future.
We assume that W G followed western astrology, no one can say for sure which he followed. The Vedic astrology has been studied by folks in India for hundreds of years.
Let's swing back to 'keep it simple'. The Earth's moon is not a planet, but is referenced in financial astrology. The moon is used for timing the market, but as you know the moon travels around the Earth once a month, this means it has a 22 day trading cycle. That is it 22 period cycle. The Earth travels around the sun in 365 days, thus its cycle period is 365, Mercury is 89 days, Venus is 225 etc. Therefore the plant cycles are just massive sine wave cycles.
Financial astrology is hard from most to link to the financial markets, after all the fundamentals of Apple Inc stock price has little to do with the position of Saturn and Pluto. True! However traders in the markets will if the correlation is high enough in a financial market based on chaos theory and real money is to be made then of course traders will overcome doubts and do what that can to make money.
Financial astrology is not 100% successful, and they can be horribly wrong. The interpretation of the geometry of the planets to future trends of stock price is more of an art than a science as the forecaster is governed by their own bias. However it is sure is fun learning about it.
Reviewing the websites and work of Malcom Bucholtz is very interesting. A real life trader using financial astrology. Here is an example of Malcom in action using western astrology: (his YouTube channel and here)
Different strokes for different folks. In the end its all about finding the astrology cycle that fits price action, this highest correlation, traders have been doing this for 100's of years. If the transits of Pluto, Mars and Uranus occur at every top in the SP500, who is to say that it won't happen again. During William Gann day you may have been at risk of being thrown in jail making money with financial astrology, today anything goes.
NOTE: Readtheticker.com does not provide financial astrology tool set, however the use of our Jim Hurst cycle tools would work well with financial astrology cycles.
Malcom Bucholtz on why financial astrology works:
These are the same principles that ancient civilizations before us (ie the Egyptians, the Sumerians, the Babylonians) also understood. The world around us moves in patterns and cycles. Problem is, we are all so busy in our crazy world running here and there and everywhere that we fail to notice. Likewise, the planets in the solar system are constantly in orbital motion around the Sun. This Heliocentricity lies at the very core of Masonry and Gann well understood the motions of the planets. Today, we are so busy in our half-crazed world that we have lost sight of the fact that the planets affect our emotions. The financial markets are nothing more than a gigantic exercise in emotion. Fear and hope are the two primary emotions that govern the buying and selling activity on all global markets.
Interesting, no!
Investing Quote...
"If we wish to avert failure in speculation we must deal with causes. Everything in existence is based on exact proportion and perfect relationship. There is no chance in nature, because mathematical principles of the highest order lie at the foundation of all things. Faraday said: `There is nothing in the Universe but mathematical points of force." ~ William D Gann
"The four most dangerous words in investing are 'This time it's different'" ~ John Templeton
