Have you studied his books, from your post I doubt it.
Gann was a good trader over many years. He also put in many years of historical research, in those days spending years at the library collecting data from old newspaper. From such work (there were many others) has grown the foundation of much we now enjoy aided by our computers to make good trades if we follows the rules and have the discipline.
It is easy to make off handed criticism but Gann's work is extensive and a lot of study of him is required to gain the whole benefit and picture of where he is coming from. I do not profess to know it all, and as a trader very fallable as most who are truthfull admit, but many basics of Gann have stood me in good stead. eg. sell when everyone else is buying and vice versa and above all follow the trend of not just the stock but particularly the product that is making it so.
However in this dscipline Gann is only a small part, there are very many other great traders and writers of same to be digested over time to, in fact the way that the markets change so rapidly we need to gleen all that we can get our hands on.
Often I also see crticisms of Robert Kyosaki, sure his focus is on selling books but his words are very good for those seeking to learn about investing, they are all starting points only, and if they did not provide them someone else would and they too would be criticised for putting there hand out.
When you have produced what these types of researchers have put forward then just maybe one can criticise. I suspect however with the scholarship requied to do that you may then find yorself holding them up in admiration.
No one today would set off like Burke and Wills to cross the continent, they did, they died and it could be said that they were a failure. However they are held up as great pioneers opening up a dry and hostile country.
So lets look at the good in Gann and many others and thank them for the legacy left to us for the taking if we bother to pick up the books. And you dont have to spend a cent, it can be picked up on the net with ease these days.
I've looked at some of the books Gann wrote. I've read a number of Gann books written by others. I own the 'Gann Made Easy' course by Bill McLaren.
You claim Gann was
'a good trader over many years'.
On what evidence do you base this claim? According to Gann's son, Gann couldn't make a living from trading and had to rely on sales of his books and courses to support himself and his family.
Sounds remarkably like some of the people who sell Gann courses these days.
I keep hearing about the 50 million dollars that Gann is supposed to have made - a staggering sum of money in todays values. Where is the proof of the 50 million? His estate when he died wasn't worth one million, let alone fifty.
The claims about Gann being such an amazing trader are about as credible as the claims that Livermore was a trading master. Livermore kept going broke. No matter how much money he made, he kept losing it all because clearly he failed to learn the all important lessons of money management and risk control.
How good is a trader who neglects risk control - he's an accident waiting to happen and will sooner or later get wiped out, just like Livermore kept doing.
Yet the legend of Livermore the great trader is stubbornly believed by people who are keen to have a hero to worship.
I think Gann is probably hero worshipped for much the same reason.
One of Gann's quotes was
'The first higher bottom is the safest place to buy, and the first lower top is the safest place to sell'.
Well golly gee.....was Gann really the first one to work that out? I'd suggest that other traders before Gann would have come to the same conclusion.
Gann said follow the trend. Good advice, but here again, I'd suggest that good traders were doing exactly that before Gann came on the scene and starting writing down this sort of information.
Someone writes a book that espouses the virtues of methods that have been used for decades, it can look like they themselves were the first to discover and use these methods.
We can debate the Gann issue forever, but I've yet to see anyone demonstrate how Gann strategies can consistently put you into a trade right at the start of a trend, and take you out of the trade right at the end of the trend.
The best I've seen from any method, Gann or anything else, is an entry shortly after the trend has begun, and an exit shortly before or after the trend has finished.
I know at least half a dozen strategies and setups that can do that. None of them involve forecasting, all of them are so simple that they can be easily and quickly learned by anyone. Many of them can be found by software with scanning ability, meaning that hundreds of charts can be searched in just a few minutes to find trade setups.
In other words, the best strategies can do no more than enable an astute trader to take bites out of trends.
Now, if any of you Ganners can demonstrate how Gann strategy can
consistently achieve any more than taking bites out of trends, then please do so.