STA Blog

The topic of his talk was ‘Classic Gann’, a subject he is so passionate about that he set up Arcanum Market Research (where he is president) in order to develop the use and understanding of this unique approach to technical analysis. Prior to that he established Richardson Global Strategies to help floor traders transition to electronic trading, something he continues to be involved in, overseeing the development of quantative market strategies and machine learning.

This speaker was suggested by STA Board Member David Watts and golly, were we lucky to catch this fabulous presentation. The man is not only seriously keen on the method, he has considered all details of the talk, from content length and slides, lighting and the use of visuals (I have a hunch he was based in a professional TV studio). He reminds us that he isn’t approved by the US SEC or CFTC, therefore he does not give out advice to investors, but like Gann himself, newsletters and subscribers are an important arm of the business.

He stresses that ‘’Gann’s indicators are predictive’’, unlike moving averages and other trend following systems, and that he ‘’used more than just cycles’’. He subdivides Gann’s system into three criteria, the first being the man’s writings themselves (which Mr Richardson has been studying for over 20 years). Like another Gann expert, Tony Plummer FSTA, he feels that perhaps some of the seminal texts might be written in some form of Masonic code, or at the very least are cynical and cryptic to some extent. ‘’Gann was a bit cheeky with his writings and attitude’’ in newsletters from his Scientific Service Inc. based at 78 Wall Street, New York.

Criteria number two is that Gann is objective, with rules-based formulae (many taken to four decimal places – well before the advent of calculators, let alone computers). Still today machines have trouble coping with Gann’s variables because they are non-linear. Likewise, I might add, many have trouble with non-parametric statistics which isn’t based on normal distributions.

The third criteria is: ‘’you can’t trade another man’s strategy’’. You have to do the work, fit one’s strategy to one’s psychology. D’mitri has created his own proprietary trading rules, including trading signals called Arcana, where he has published results going back to 2017.

He flips through a few examples – silver, gold, S&P 500 and Nikkei 225 (though he obviously has many more lined up) – and leaves us with the tantalising thought that this year might be very interesting for markets. This is because we are in the planet Uranus’ cycle, an 84-year one as it’s at the outer edges of the solar system. At a 68 degree angle, it suggests an upcoming bear market for US equities and most commodities, with a decline starting this year through to 2027 – for a fifty per cent decline (or ten per cent per annum, roughly).

You have been warned – ever so slickly!