Baumring's Challenge: To Crack Gann’s Hidden Teachings A Tale of Injury, Coincidence & True Grit

Since the advent of the Internet there has been a massive resurgence of interest in the forecasting principles of W. D. Gann and correlatively the interpretation and explanation of Gann provided by the late Dr. Jerome Baumring of the Investment Centre.

It is common for the new (and old) students of the Gann methodologies to be overwhelmed by a mass of complicated, disordered and conflicting material regarding the mythic figure and cryptic teachings of this great market master, W. D. Gann.

Since Dr. Baumring has been the primary proponent of the scientific application Gann’s deepest principles of the Law of Vibration to financial market forecasting since Gann himself, his work has received considerable attention by the most serious researchers who are aware of his reputation and influence within this field. There has been so much curiosity and confusion surrounding Dr. Baumring and his theories to warrant a more detailed elaboration and clarification of the history and ideas of this visionary financial analyst and modern Natural Philosopher.

Donald Mack, a highly respected market historian and scholar, founder of the Library of Investment Study, general editor of the Financial Times’ Trader’s Masterclass Series, and Baumring’s partner at The Investment Centre stated:

“In our capacity as book suppliers to the world in our specialist area of stock and commodity books, we have met many who have been trying to fit together the pieces of the puzzle that is Gann. However, no one to our knowledge has come close to solving the mysteries inherent to the Gann methodology except for Dr. Baumring, whom we saw evolve from his initial introduction to Gann to a complete mastery some years later. So much so that we unequivocally state that he is the only person we know of that has solved every aspect that Gann wrote about.”

How Baumring Discovered the Teachings of Gann

Dr. Baumring was introduced to Gann while recovering from a car accident which severely injured his spine (complication from which ultimately resulted in his untimely death). While in the hospital, someone gave him a copy of Perry Kaufman’s Commodity Trading Systems and Methods, in which is presented a copy of Gann’s famous May Soy Beans Chart, which specifically caught his eye. Dr. Baumring noticed on this chart a tiny almost indistinguishable point and arc which had been drawn with a compass on the chart. This sparked his intellectual curiosity, making him wonder what exactly Gann was doing in making such a measurement. This question lead him to commit the next three years of his life to an almost maniacal pursuit, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week to the figuring out the essence Gann’s trading methodologies.

W.D. Gann’s famous May soybeans chart (1947–48). This chart exemplifies the master’s use of astrology and planetary lines in stock market forecasting. The chart includes the planetary symbol for Jupiter.

Veiled Techniques

It was evident to Dr. Baumring that Gann was using techniques which were not outrightly presented in his courses, and that the key to deciphering his cryptic writings lay in an understanding of, as he often put it, “how Gann used words”. He realized that, to understand this, he would have to study everything that Gann himself had studied in his time in order to obtain a frame of reference coincident with that of the Master.

Collaborating With Donald Mack

Dr. Baumring approached Donald Mack and requested the use of his massive investment library, while he himself also began accumulating an extensive personal library of old scientific, metaphysical and market works which Gann most likely would have had access to himself in the last 1800’s and early 1900’s. Baumring did not limit his study to only the system and references left by Gann, but engaged in an extensive review of the entire spectrum of works on market history, analysis, forecasting, and trading, as represented across Mack’s extensive library.

Baumring’s Encyclopedic Reading List

As he progressed, he compiled a catalog of the best authors and most important works throughout history, representing one or another approach to this system of knowledge or developing various styles of forecasting and trading technology of the highest caliber in each area of specialization. This collection is the basis of the ICE reprint catalog of historical works of the great market masters from the Golden Age of technical analysis.

Reaching back into the 1700’s and up through his current time in the 1980’s, Baumring drew together all the best resources and experts in the field ranging from the early mass psychologist, Charles MacKay and first commodity forecaster, Samuel Benner, to engineering approach best represented by Roger Babson, Dr. Alan Andrews and William Garrett, into the cycle experts like, Kondratieff, Edward R. Dewey, and M. V. Woods, to the more esoteric thinkers like Gann and George Bayer, and into the financial astrology tradition of the ancients, up through the modern thinkers and compatriots of Gann’s time, Fred White, Alan Leo, Sepharial, Johndro, Langham, Jensen, McWhirter, and more…

With his and Mack’s libraries representing the world’s best collections on these subjects, and the Investment Centre being THE premier financial bookstore on the planet, there was no important thinker or theorist in these fields of whom Baumring was not fully aware, and whose insights and theories were not considered in Baumring’s analysis. His synthesizing and reverse engineering of Gann’s system went far beyond Gann’s system alone, representing the most thorough and complete survey of the mechanics of market analysis and forecasting ever attempted.

Baumring’s Breakthrough Moment

After three years of indefatigable research into these vast resources, during which time Baumring read over 5,000 books, a feat only accomplished with the help of a photographic memory and an ability to read 1,800 words a minute, a doctorate in pharmacology, an expertise in advanced mathematics, his natural gift as a mechanical engineer, and a background in Zen and the martial arts, he had hit a seemingly unassailable wall.

Faced with the prospect of failure, he awoke late one night to hear an inner voice direct him to his charts. As he sat down at his chart table, this voice walked him step by step through the final barriers to understanding, and he finally cracked the secret to Gann’s system. Over the coming months more and more pieces came together, until the system was completely clear and his goal had been fully accomplished.

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