W.D. Gann Trading Techniques – I

Gann Trading strategies

• Importance of number 3

Majority of moves will generally occur in time period of three – days, weeks or months.Never trade in the direction of the trend on its third day.

• Tops, bottoms and consolidations

* Tops usually take time to form. Spike tops are less common compared to spike bottoms. Tops are marked by extreme movements in medium and small stocks. They will rise by even 20% in a day. These are called blow offs. Because of this short-selling on extreme top is risky.
* Divergences will appear at the top but they cannot be used for timing the trade. Time cycles shall indicate when the actual reversal will start.
* In bull market watch for a correction which is greater in both price and time than the previous corrections in the move up. (Opposite in the downmoves).
* Highest probability of support is that the corrections in the uptrend will all be very close to equal.

 

Weak stocks will generally not rally until either a test of the first bottom or a higher bottom is made by the market. (That is why AD line is a lagging indicator and generally moves up in the third wave)The third move trying to break the consolidation top/bottom is the most important. If it fails, a fast move in the other direction may be expected.

False breakouts from consolidation result in very fast moves. False breakout occurs when a move outside the consolidation zone fails to sustain in the following week and where the price has not gone beyond three points above the top. These false moves start with high momentum.

A breakout from a three-four day consolidation in a very narrow range results in sharp three day move.

Faster moves start from third of fourth higher bottom. It will be strong move if there is space between the third or fourth bottom and the previous top.
* Swing objectives – add the range to move to the top of that move to find out the target for the next upmove or reverse in the bear market.
* Square of numbers and 50% of the difference between those squares are significant support and resistance, but cannot be traded by themselves.

 

Gann says that there can be nine mathematical proofs of any point of resistance

1. Angles from top and bottoms

2. Angles running horizontally i.e. the previous tops and bottoms

3. Time cycles (vertical angles) (Press a short sale if there are three or four days of sideways movement after a high day and this is followed by a down day with high volume where low is lower than the low of the sideways movement and when this coincides with expiry of time cycles)

4. Crossing of important angles originating at zero

5. Crossing or coming together of angles from double or triple tops or bottoms

6. Crossing of double or triple tops or bottoms

7. Past resistance/ support

8. Volume of sales

9. Squaring of time and price.

Trading strategies

Have different strategies for the four situations:
* Bull market
* Bull market top i.e. reversal from bull to bear market phase
* Bear market
* Reversal phase from bear to bull market

 

Weak stocks will generally not rally until either a test of the first bottom or a higher bottom is made by the market. (That is why AD line is a lagging indicator and generally moves up in the third wave)The third move trying to break the consolidation top/bottom is the most important. If it fails, a fast move in the other direction may be expected.

False breakouts from consolidation result in very fast moves. False breakout occurs when a move outside the consolidation zone fails to sustain in the following week and where the price has not gone beyond three points above the top. These false moves start with high momentum.

A breakout from a three-four day consolidation in a very narrow range results in sharp three day move.

Faster moves start from third of fourth higher bottom. It will be strong move if there is space between the third or fourth bottom and the previous top.