Member-only story
When It Comes To Investing, Don’t Trust Anyone
Assume bad faith and you’ll do well
W.D. Gann is one of the most famous traders in history.
During his lifetime, he devised trading techniques, which he used to create a small fortune.
Or did he…?
There is debate about whether Gann really made his money from trading or actually from selling his courses.
In his book Trading for a Living, Alexander Elder interviewed Gann’s son:
He told me that his famous father could not support his family by trading but earned his living by writing and selling instructional courses. When he died his estate was valued at slightly over $100,000
Sound familiar?
Regardless of the merits of the techniques, it’s clear that we can’t take the words of traders at face value as often they have ulterior motives.
Here are two common examples, where things are not what they seem.
Talking a book
Famous investors from Ray Dalio to Michael Burry will often make predictions about what the market will do next.
Such predictions should be treated with a degree of caution. Investors and traders almost always talk their own book.
