The W. D. Gann Master Commodity Course: Original Commodity Market Trading Course

Poor printing quality....

I've studied Gann and have read all his previous books and this one is the most useful of them all. As a Financial Astrologer I saw the direct evidence in print of his using what we call "Astronomic Indicators" though it is painfully incomplete - foolish of me to even consider he'd include his "grail" everyone wants to know! Astrology may or may not be that grail, but astrology is one of the great secrets in the stock and commodity markets. It's the knowledge many of the Wall Street 1% know but will never say aloud. No broker could ever tell his or her client to wait for Jupiter to be in Cancer before buying that homebuilder stock. It's a subject not unlike the secrets of the Masons, and Gann was one of them as well. 33rd Degree if I recall correctly.The most you could gather from the limited amount of astrology for trading in this book, is this genius did indeed use planetary motion in predicting market movements. It's his handwriting. Gann associated with some of the more prominent astrologers of his time, Jayne and Johndro among them. If you do a search for Gann you'll find probably hundreds of websites who claim to know his techniques and would gladly sell them to you, but I wouldn't believe it. The best of what he used went to the grave with him. What others think he used, they are at best, guessing. The complete picture was likely discovered by a select few but they would never sell that information - they're making money with it by trading! It will be up to you to put together some of these pieces and give it your best shot.For those of you who are traders and not astrologers, you don't at all need to know astrology to benefit from this book. If you're interested in astrology and the markets, pick up what's called an Ephemeris, or better yet, a copy of Solar Fire 8 astrology software if you're interested in learning his known methodology. Planet longitude equivalents to price are evident, but there is far more to it that is not in this book or anywhere else for that matter. The May 1948 Soybeans chart is perhaps the most complete publicly known example, though it's difficult to decipher as his penmanship was not that of a draftsman of his time - what would've helped immensely!There's more to it than astrology of course. The book is a great asset in how his thinking process operated in the course of making trades. The magnitude of profit in his trades were astonishing and yet routine in his descriptions of them. Knowing how a master trader thinks and in describing details of his trades alone is a gold mine. You don't dismiss a man who over 45 years had 92% winning trades. This is not fiction, as it was witnessed and documented on the trading floor by Ticker Magazine in 1909.The most intriguing part of the book for me was the part where not only his astrological indicators were shown, but also the various grids and squares of numbers for determining price and time, all drawn by hand. These include "The Square of Nine," "Square of Twelve" and the other various grids and circle graphs to include the octagon and the "NYSE Permanent Chart." The one on page 323 made me wonder if Gann had Asperger's Syndrome but was able live an otherwise normal life. It may just be his IQ and attention span dwarfs most mortals. When I think of what he could've done at that time with the computers we have now...The upshot is the book is definitely a bargain for what you get. Just make sure you have a few boxes of K-Cups and your Keurig because you'll need it. You cannot read this book in a day or a weekend! This is more like a one-year college course, so don't rush! As odd as this may sound, you can't just read it and know what he's communicating. You'll need to actively visualize while he narrates his trades to fully understand his process. This is not a canned trading system by any means, but when you get to the end of the book, if you've taken good notes, you'll at the very least have learned swing trading from perhaps the greatest master trader of all.

For the Gann fans, this book was definitely written by him. Mr Gann talks of angles, number charts and common sense trading rules. The rules that Gann built on over a long trading history and still so very relevant in today's markets. Mr Gann leads you in with the basics and builds on this base. This book does get somewhat "heavier" towards the end and careful study of what is being shown is a must. I found reading this book in sections and understanding what is being told before moving on but I still return to earlier sections and find something I missed. Hidden Gems ! This book could be used as a beginning and retained as your trading level increases, a must for the trading library. The thing that continues to hold me in awe of Mr Gann, is this man developed his charts, angles, and mathematics that are involved before the days of the electronic calculation devices.

I am still reading the book, trust me, Gann is not easy reading. However, compared to the other books I have read of Gann's, this one is definitely THE TRADING COURSE explaining his technique in detail. I would recommend it for any trader grasping to make sense of the moves any market makes. Since this book is titled by Gann as the Master Commodities Course, if you are not already familiar with the basics of his technique, you might read through it at first and wonder, what the hell is he talking about? But if you are familiar with the basics of his technique then this book should shed more light on those techniques and if you follow the rules suggested by Gann, a lot of the guess work normally associated with trading will disappear.

An absolute essential reading for any trader. I wish that this was the first book I had read as a new trader. Gann was by far the Master Trader and why not learn from the best at the beginning? There are many valuable and simple concepts in this book that will help any trader and there are also complex methods to study to enhance your skills. Gann makes the very complex world of trading seem simple and if you follow his rules you will find success. Anyone who criticizes Gann's writing is most likely unable to comprehend anything!