Alan OliverAlan Oliver has been a private educator and trader, beginning his career in
1989. He has worked for two major Australian banks, Westpac and ANZ.
Most recently...Read more >>
Dale GillhamDale Gillham is the director and founder of Wealth Within, an Australian-based company specialising in independent investment advice and share market education.Read more >>
Mathew VerdouwWith an honours degree in Computer Systems Engineering, and seeing a place in the market for a quality Technical Analysis software application that removed the...Read more >>
Ray BarrosRay Barros is a professional trader, fund manager, author, and educator.
Since he started trading over twenty years ago, his track record shows
that a hypothetical investment...Read more >>
W.D.Gann and his amazing analytical talents have long held
an interest for me, almost from the start of my trading ventures. Anyone who
has the ability to accurately forecast a major world war many years before it
started knows something that the rest of us have yet to discover.
This talent was prominently focussed on market trading, and
since he left a lot of work with very few real clues about the forecasting
techniques, in particular his discovery of a Master Time factor which was never
revealed, many have tried to duplicate his results without any real success. I
have not seen anyone who can accurately claim to have rediscovered this Master
Time Factor; indeed, it would be hard to prove without the original work to
confirm it.
The main issue then is that many have tried and failed
leading to scorn and derision of his work. They claim his fortune cannot be
verified and unfortunately this is true, but this written work in the Tunnel
through the Air predicting the Japanese attack cannot be discounted so easily.
In my trading, I have used many of his tools and techniques
with resolute success, I have no doubt he had an uncanny gift as I have seen
his tool works in my lifetime long after his death.
In recent times I have been asked to present his work and
teachings to students, and I have been able to present some of his work to
traders. The easiest way to understand any great work is to build a simple,
basic foundation then add advanced layers to it as you progress and understand
the rules. The simplest of Gann’s work is undoubtedly his Swing Chart; although
he did not actually invent the Swing Chart he certainly was the first to
understand its implications for successful trading. In all of his later
advanced work the simple swing chart is still drawn on his charts.
I spent countless hours studying the Swing Chart in great
detail, and this fabulous tool has some real benefits for any trader of any
level of knowledge.
In my research of this tool, I also created some of my own
signals and indicators which surprisingly are absent from most if not all of
the typical texts on trading. Surprisingly, because if you adopted a simple
approach like the swing chart as a tool you will remove most of the mistakes
that uneducated amateur traders repeat on a daily basis.
Some of my own patterns are:
The Wedge tool:
The Swing Failure:
The Active Trendline:
These little discoveries can be so easy, so simple and yet
so powerful. It’s in all likelihood the simplicity of it all that has been the
reason for its exclusion in other books. The simplest things get overlooked
because in our search for the Holy Grail we miss the woods for the trees.
The Wedge tool is, like most of my trading, so simple to use
its almost laughable. The team at Market Analyst were able to implement this
tool into the program and subsequently identify wedge patterns for traders to
recognise, scan for, and use in everyday trading.
There is a real added benefit to traders using this wedge
tool that is not readily apparent in almost any other signals or indicator, subsequently
it has become a favourite for those who understand it.
The Wedge tool on your charts will give you:
An entry point to start your trade:
A stop loss point to exit when the trade goes against you:
A profit target to close out your trade with a profit.
In my discussions with eager trading students, there aren’t
too many who can readily identify the start and the end of a trade. Most, if
not all, have at some point entered at the wrong place, had a stop too close or
too far away, and/or held the trade too long turning a profit into a loss or
exited too early.
Equally there aren’t too many traders who aren’t absolutely
amazed at the examples once displayed.
One of the fabulous properties of this discovery over and above the previous
ones mentioned is that it can be used on any market in any time frame. I have
used this personally on 5 minute currency charts and daily/weekly/monthly stock
charts with equal success.
Like most of my material, nothing is left to chance. The
wedge tool is explained in plain, simple language with plenty of examples and
discussions. The tool is present in the software package, so you can easily
identify and confirm it. I am happy to provide weekly updates and examples of
the swing charts, the standard techniques and my own discoveries. Additionally,
anyone with this material is most welcome to send in questions which we will
respond to by the next working day.
Finally, I wish you every success in your research and
trading. I know the rewards of the journey, it can take some time for us to
fully comprehend the boundaries of our path, but if you persist and dedicate
yourself to becoming a better trader, the results will surely come. Having had
someone who has been there will be of immense value, and to that end I look
forward to helping you become a great market trader.
My very best wishes,
Alan Oliver.
Footnote: Above is an example of the Wedge at work. This
well known top 200 Australian stock was giving buyers a strong rally until it
made a wedge pattern and fell very strongly.
When everyone else was buying this rise, our wedge pattern
said sell, and indeed the price of the stock fell 10% and 20% respectively on
these signals.
Using the Wedge tool in Market Analyst, traders were able to
scan for the setup and take a short trade and made fabulous profits with the
Entry price, stop loss and profit target all defined by the wedge pattern.
Alan Oliver - Professional Trader, Author & Educator
Alan Oliver has been a private educator and trader, beginning his career in
1989. He has worked for two major Australian banks, Westpac and ANZ.
Most recently he has written a book on his favourite subject of
Fibonacci and the Golden Harmonic ratio, praised for its ease of
explanation and suitability for all traders of any level. He has been
invited by Australian and overseas traders to speak on the subject,
just recently completing a book tour of Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur,
Singapore, Bangkok and China.