📖William Gann

Sell Discipline Rules

🌿 Intermediate★★★★★

Follow pre-defined sell criteria without emotion.

💬

Have clear, pre-defined sell criteria. Sell when: your thesis is broken, valuation is fully realized, or a significantly better opportunity appears.

— 45 Years in Wall Street,1949

🏠 Everyday Analogy

A process is like a pilot checklist: discipline prevents simple mistakes when pressure rises and keeps outcomes more repeatable.

📖 Core Interpretation

W.D. Gann advocates a repeatable process: define criteria, execute consistently, and review decisions against evidence. Process quality drives outcome consistency.
💎 Key Insight:Disciplined selling prevents emotional decision-making.

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❓ Why It Matters

Without process, there is no reliable feedback loop. Structured execution and review improve decision quality over time.

🎯 How to Practice

Run a decision loop of research, thesis, execution, and post-mortem; document assumptions and update playbooks with evidence, not hindsight bias.

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

Having opinions without execution criteria
Reviewing outcomes but not decisions
Abandoning rules during volatility spikes

📚 Case Studies

1
Pre-Crash Speculation in U.S. Equities (1929)
A trader buys stocks on margin in mid-1929, ignoring Gann’s rules on overtrading, trend analysis, and protective stops.
✨ Outcome:Severe losses in the October crash; portfolio wiped out due to no stop-loss and failure to follow trend-reversal signals.
2
Crash of 1983—87 Bull Market Reversal (1987)
An investor rides the strong 1980s bull market, but unlike peers, applies Gann’s rules: pyramids cautiously, sets stops, and watches time and price cycles.
✨ Outcome:Capital mostly preserved in October 1987 crash; limited drawdowns and quick recovery enabled by disciplined exits.

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