An Interview with Dr. Jerome Baumring Los Angeles Herald Examiner

Tuesday February 4th 1986

By Aruo Sederberg, Moneyline

L.A. Bookstore Speaks Volumes On Esoteric Investment Theory

Tucked away on the second floor at 2124 S. Sepulveda Blvd. (near Olympic) in Los Angeles is something the likes of which cannot be found anywhere else on this globe.

It's the Investment Centre Bookstore, owned and operated by two men trained in fields one would think far removed from speculation in stocks, bonds or commodities.

Donald Mack, who founded the store in 1972, was educated as an engineer.

Jerome Baumring, his equal partner, was educated as a pharmacologist.

Both are self-educated in an investment theory apparently too esoteric (or slow) for Wall Street - the Gann Theory, which holds that natural laws, or recurring cycles, govern stock movements.

William D. Gann, who died in 1955, hailed from the East Texas cotton country. He had a mathematical bent - some say mystic - and that is the basis of the theory. It's too complex to set; down in a column, or even a book, but suffice to say, in its utmost simplicity, it's based on the view that what happened in the past will repeat.

"Nothing ever changes" says Baumring. "Everybody makes the same mistakes throughout history. It is a battle, with timing the key."

Gann, in a test by Ticker Magazine, made 286 trades in stocks in October 1909. He was right in 264, wrong in 22.

What is the theory forecasting now? It's a question that makes Baumring's eyes gleam. "The market has volcanic underpinnings," he says. "If I make a statement about how big it could be, you wouldn't believe me."

Aw, c'mon, doctor, make a statement, urges a reporter. Baumring says: "From now to the end of the third quarter, the market will be sideways or down, perhaps some 200 points (on the Dow). Then we expect a rally 1927 to 1929, to 3000 or more by 1988 or 1989. There will be 400 million-share days on the market."

And then? A crash? If the 60-year Naros Cycle holds, the top will be 1989; operative also is the Kaliyuga great cycle of - get this - 25,200 years.

It may sound wild, but to students like Baumring and Mack it's the key, along with the works of restaurant accountant R.N. Elliott and Dow theorist pioneers William Hamilton and Richard Rhea.

If you visit the Investment Centre Bookstore, you'll find all the modern stuff - "How I Made a Million," etc. - but you'll also find bound facsimiles of the old, rare books. They have the originals, but won't sell them; they're too valuable.

Among the basic investment books recommended by the pair are titles I'll wager you never heard of: "Stock Market Barometer," by Hamilton; "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator," by Edwin Lefevre; "Nature's Law," by Elliott, "45 Years on Wall Street," by Gann. There are some more updated ones, also, such as Jacob Bernstein's "The Investor's Quotient," Benjamin Graham's "Intelligent Investor," and Joe Granville's initial works.

The Centre has about 5,000 volumes, an inventory worth about $500,000, including Wall Street fiction, history, biography, and fundamental and technical analysis.

Baumring and Mack estimate about 10,000 books have been published on the subjects.

Although Baumring does anticipate that sideways to declining market until September, he's not out right now.

"It's a market of stocks, not a stock market " he says. "I'm somewhat of a contrarian, so I like the oil stocks now, since everyone is throwing them out. I also like the brokerage stocks."

His private library contains 900 books at the shop and about 1,500 at home. "And I've read them all," he says. Go talk to him or Mack, and you just might believe that.

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