Panic years
Years the card associates with financial panic or acute stress.
Historical Market Cycles
Periods When to Make Money
Explore a late-19th-century market-cycle card, learn how its three printed rows were intended to be read, and separate the historical idea from a modern, tested forecasting method.
Compiled 1872Card copyright 1883 / 1897Public-domain scan
Read The Original
Three Rows, Three Market Conditions
These labels summarize the language printed on the card. They describe its historical theory; they are not promises about future prices.
Good times and high prices
Years the card historically framed as favorable times to sell.
Hard times and low prices
Years the card historically framed as favorable times to buy.
Primary Source
Explore The Historical Card
Interpretation
What This Document Is — And Is Not
What It Is
A historical cycle hypothesis
The card organizes selected years into recurring categories of panic, prosperity, and depression. It belongs to a 19th-century tradition of looking for repetition in business and commodity cycles.
What It Is Not
A validated timing system
The printed sequence is not a modern backtest, a guarantee, or a complete explanation of market behavior. Treat it as a research artifact and test any cycle claim against independent data.
Provenance
The Tritch Promotional Card
The scan identifies George Tritch Hardware Co. of Denver and reads “Compliments of George Tritch.” Its visible text says “Compiled 1872,” while the copyright line at the bottom shows 1883 and 1897. This page describes the object by what is printed on it and does not present it as an original W. D. Gann document.
Image recordWikimedia Commons public-domain scan