“The plotted record of the New York Stock Market is a geometrical curve that represents the manifestation of natural phenomena.” W.D. Gann
A journalist once tried to get W.D. Gann to open up about his “time factor”
From the way in which Mr. Gann responded, we may presume that the time factor referred to was his Master Time Factor. His response shows how tenaciously he guarded his secret.
The interview is recorded as follows:
“I asked Mr. Gann: ‘What is the cause behind the Time Factor’.
He smiled and said: ‘It has taken me twenty years of exhaustive study to learn the cause that produces effects according to time. That is my secret and too valuable to spread broadcast. Besides, the public is not yet ready for it…my discovery of the time factor enables me to tell in advance when these extremes must, by the law of supply and demand, occur in stocks and commodities.”
Gann is saying that supply and demand as depicted by accumulation and distribution in conjunction with the time factor identifies when true extremes in price occur.
In other words patterns (of distribution and accumulation) in conjunction with the time factor tell when to expect a change in trend and to get the benefit of big moves.
In sum Gann would go on to state: “Time Turns Trend”.
In an interview in 1909, Gann affirmed that “to speculate scientifically it is absolutely necessary to follow natural law.”
In his 1923 book Truth of the Stock Tape, he identifies supply and demand with natural law when he says: “the tape and charts will point to the correct course of prices ACCORDING TO THE NATURAL LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND.”
In other words patterns of accumulation and distribution are an effect of natural law.
A business man once inquired of Gann about his advisory service. Gann wrote back: “Many years ago I discovered a time factor which enables me to tell when accumulation and distribution is taking place and when stocks reach approximate tops or bottoms.”
In one of his books Gann states that the Master Time Factor permitted him to know when “certain time cycles” would repeat.
Gann: “It is a matter of record that the panic of 1931-1932 was the greatest in history with the most severe declines ever recorded in the history of the New York Stock Exchange. This prediction was based on my Master Time Factor which enables me to tell months and years in advance when certain time cycles repeat and cause extreme high and low prices. This is enough to convince any man that my discoveries, based on mathematical science can be depended upon to forecast future market movements.”
What is Gann’s Master Time Factor?
First it is important to be aware of Gann’s use of words. Gann speaks of the existence of several cycles.
But we are talking about a Master Time Factor.
The word factor implies there are cycles derived from the master factor.
Many years ago read that Gann had discovered his Master Time Factor in 1908.
That put me on a journey of discovery.
Since it was about ‘Time’, I looked at every day for 1908 in an astrological ephemeris.
I discovered something interesting.
On March 21, 1908 Saturn and the Sun were at 0 degrees Aries.
Now the Sun is at Zero degrees Aries every March 21st.
Aries is the first sign of the Zodiac.
This is why Gann called the Vernal Equinox, March 21, the NATURAL beginning of the year.
However, the Saturn Cycle is approximately 30 years.
So on March 21, 1908, Saturn and the Sun were at zero/zero..
Saturn and the Sun were conjunct.
The ancients used to tell time by the moon.
In modern times we tell time by the Sun.
It is said the cosmos tells time by Saturn.
In ancient Roman and Greek mythology, Saturn was called “Old Man Time”
The Greek word for Saturn is Cronus as in Chronology.
The subtitle for Gann’s coded novel The Tunnel Thu The Air is Or Looking Back From 1940.
On the Square of 9 Wheel, looking back from the numbers 19 and 40 you get March 21st.
Gann’s Zero Point.
That is not the only symbolism of Looking Back From 19 40, but it is what we are concerned with in this article.
Saturn is approximately a 30 year cycle.
It transits through each zodiac sign for roughly 2 and 1/2 years.
2 and 1/2 years is 30 months.
30 months/30 years.
Wheels within wheels.
It was several years after I read that Gann discovered his MTF in 1908, that I found a biographical sketch of Gann by Les Clemens where it stated, “He made one of his greatest mathematical discoveries for predicting the trend of stocks and commodities on August 8, 1908. This was The Master Time Factor”
I think the date August 8, 1908 is just another clue. Remember Gann used ciphers.
I think the key date is March 21, 1908.
August 8, 1908 is 8/8/8.
I think Gann is pointing to 3 cycles of the Saturn Cycle or the Great 90 Year Cycle.
1/2 of the 90 Year Cycle is the important 45 year cycle.
Saturn is one of Gann’s Chronocrators.
The other is Jupiter.
The Jupiter/Saturn conjunction cycle is 20 years.
The two ORB’s in an 8 are symbolic of a conjunction, the Jupiter/Saturn cycle.
3 of these conjunctions is the Mater 60 Year Cycle.
What Gann has done with this math is to highlight a 30 Year, a 60 Year and a 90 Year Cycle.
Nikola Tesla stated, “If you only knew the magnificence of 3, 6, and 9, you would have the key to the universe.”
he believed these numbers held the key to understanding energy, frequency, and vibration.
90 degrees of the year is 3 months.
180 degrees of the year is 6 months
270 degrees of the year is 9 months
Then you are back to the beginning of the circle or cycle.
On May 24th, Saturday, Saturn entered Aries.
It remains there until September 1, 2025, (near the 96th anniversary of the 1929 top)
It then goes retrograde for a few months before returning to Aries on February 13, 2026,
Staying there until April 12, 2028.
On May 17th, 1792, the day the NYSE Started, Saturn entered Aries. A beginning to be sure.
So you can imagine that Gann thought this was an important ‘time factor’.
Above we flagged 3 cycles of the 30 year Saturn Cycle for 90 years and that 1/2 this cycle is 45 years.
Interestingly Saturn and Uranus form a 45 year cycle.
The title of one of Gann’s books is 45 Years In Wall Street. He didn’t call it 45 Years ON Wall Street.
1792 was the birth of the NYSE.
On July 22, 1792 there was a Saturn/Uranus conjunction.
A 45 year cycle.
Interestingly the 45 year Saturn/Uranus conjunction also aligns with the first calculation of the DJIA.
The DJIA started on May 26, 1896.
There was a Saturn/Uranus were conjunct a few months later on January 6, 1897. (a small time difference in the context of 45 years).
45 years + 1897 gives 1942. A major low.
The Saturn/Uranus conjunction in 1987 was on August 15th.
That year’s high prior to Black Monday was on August 25th.
The conjunction occurred again in early 1988.
One-half the Saturn/Uranus Cycle is 2009. A major low.
The next Saturn/Uranus conjunction will be in 2032,
I created a trend channel connecting the 1987 low with the 2009 low
And paralleling that off the 200 top.
Notice where it hit in late 2024/early 2025.
The most important points on this chart are 1987, 2000 and 2009 that all kiss the trend channel.
How important was the early 2025 high?
The purple line is a mid-channel line that catches the 2002 low and the 206 low and the 2020 low.
Notice the breakout above it in 2013 signaled the run above the 1550-1570 double tops from 2000 and 2007.
Notice the bullish backtest of the purple mid-channel like in 2016 (and 2020).
While the SPX rebounded with authority in April after testing the Jan 2022 peak, (the normal expectation with prior resistance acting as support) breakage below 4800 opens the door to 3000 SPX.
As well the 60 Year Cycle marking the Secular Bull Market Top from 1966 is on the table.
If that major cycle exerts its downside influence, theoretically, breakage below 3000 opens the Ultimate Door to 1500 region which ties to the bottom of the blue trend channel.
Of course that also satisfies a picture perfect backtest of the double tops from 2000 and 2007.
Within the context of this large 45 year cycle, just as with the 90 Year Cycle, we must use the 90, 180 and 270 degrees.
For example 270 degrees of the 45 year cycle is 33.75 years.
33.75 years added the August 1987 to early 1988 conjunction gives March 2021 to September 2021.
Saturn plays an important role in market cycles.
Last week’s ingress into Aries may have timed a Secondary High.
May sets up to be a turning point month cyclically and technically.
From the March 2020 crash low to the October 2022 Bear low is 133 weeks or 30 months.
From the October 2022 low to mid-May 2025 is 133 weeks or 30 months.
Notice the history of the 20 week and 50 week moving average cross-overs.
Let’s drill down to take a look at a close only trend line from 2020 and 2022.
The April low also closed on that same trend line (blue).
Currently the same trend line resides at 5300 region.
Breakage below 5300 opens the door to a test of the April low.
Below that 4400 and 4100 come into play.
Again, notice the picture perfect test of the January 2022 high this past April (magenta).
While the vast majority of traders will probably not be concerned as long as we hold above 4800, we have a leg up, knowing that 5300 likely sounds a blaring alarm (the extended blue trend line.
The concern is the second mouse gets the bear cheese on the second break of the trend line from 2020.
Let’s drill down to the dailies.
I connected the July 2023 high with the momentum peak in December 2024.
Then I paralleled a line off the August 2024 Flash Crash low.
Notice how this line catches the March 2025 high and the May 19,2025 high.
In fact on May 19 the SPX struck a high of 5968 (596).
596 points to Feb 19, the high day and squares out with May 21st, a big signal reversal bar sell day.
The SPX broke over its 200 day moving average on a massive gap on May 12.
The normal expectation the first time down to test the 200 dma after such momentum is for a bounce.
This bounce we are seeing is also being produced by a drop into the gap window from May 12th.
In sum, the SPX 3 Day Chart turned down on Friday. It last turned down on May 7th, defining a low, just before the May 12 Swiss Melt Up.
Trade below Friday’s 3 Day Chart low warrants caution.
That said the SPX left an outside down week and trade below last weeks low puts the index in the weekly Plus One/Minus Two buy position.
Buy POSITION…because it’s not an automatic bullish setup. It is the behavior that will count.
It is however the first Plus One/Minus Two weekly buy setup since the low.
If we just saw a Secondary High, a Wave 2 high, the likelihood is the buy setup will fail.
This drama is all playing out in the context of a 20/50 week ma Bowitie.
Grab the popcorn.
The Roadmap for May 27.
An initial rally high at 9:50 leads to a pullback into 10:15 and a further rally into 10:30.
From there a pullback to session lows into 11:30 is projected.
A choppy sawtooth rally attempt plays out into 1:45 where a sharp spike is indicated into 2:30.
From there pullback/high level consolidation plays out into the close.
There are two possible inversion pivots.
The first at 11:50 just as a perceived rally starts.
The second at 1:45 where a sharp spike is indicated.
If the second inversion pivot sticks we could see a dramatic downspike instead of a sharp rally.