The Complete TurtleTrader: The Legend, the Lessons, the Results

by Michael W. Covel

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This is the true story behind Wall Street legend Richard Dennis, his disciples, the Turtles, and the trading techniques that made them millionaires.

What happens when ordinary people are taught a system to make extraordinary money? Richard Dennis made a fortune on Wall Street by investing according to a few simple rules. Convinced that great trading was a skill that could be taught to anyone, he made a bet with his partner and ran a classified ad in the Wall Street Journal looking for novices to train. His recruits, later known as the Turtles, had anything but traditional Wall Street backgrounds; they included a professional blackjack player, a pianist, and a fantasy game designer. For two weeks, Dennis taught them his investment rules and philosophy, and set them loose to start trading, each with a million dollars of his money. By the time the experiment ended, Dennis had made a hundred million dollars from his Turtles and created one killer Wall Street legend.

In The Complete TurtleTrader, Michael W. Covel, bestselling author of Trend Following and managing editor of TurtleTrader.com, the leading website on the Turtles, tells their riveting story with the first ever on the record interviews with individual Turtles. He describes how Dennis interviewed and selected his students, details their education and experiences while working for him, and breaks down the Turtle system and rules in full. He reveals how they made astounding fortunes, and follows their lives from the original experiment to the present day. Some have grown even wealthier than ever, and include some of today's top hedge fund managers. Equally important are those who passed along their approach to a second generation of Turtles, proving that the Turtles' system truly is reproducible, and that anyone with the discipline and the desire to succeed can do as well as—or even better than—Wall Street's top hedge fund wizards.

In an era full of slapdash investing advice and promises of hot stock tips for "the next big thing," as popularized by pundits like Jim Cramer of Mad Money, the easy-to-follow objective rules of the TurtleTrader stand out as a sound guide for truly making the most out of your money. These rules worked—and still work today—for the Turtles, and any other investor with the desire and commitment to learn from one of the greatest investing stories of all time.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4 out of 5 stars

Interesting strory but no trading method described., 2008-11-13

Based on the title "The complete Turtle Trader" I was expecting more than a story describing the different participants, results and trading personalities. The book did not discuss the trading methodology in any details that can allow an average trader to duplicate. Most of the Rules were general in nature, for example "buying new breakouts" "being comfortable in shorting the market" "stop watching TV and base your trading on price action, i.e., open high low close". A more detailed description on risk control and money management is given but not much different than you find in other books.
The last 40 or so pages are a compilation of trading results with the appendix.
One interesting point is that Turtle Traders in most cases were not using their own money which takes out the emotion from trading and this could be the reason for their success. A feature that cannot be duplicated by someone trading their own money since emotions always tend to get in the way.
Nevertheless it is an interesting read and for that reason the 4 star rating

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Good read, 2008-08-27
Good book. A lot of traders get caught up in the fundamental garbage, especially when they start out. Focusing on the noise just takes your attention off of what really matters - making money. I can't cant the number of times when a crop report comes out that supports my bias on the market, only to see the market move the opposite direction. The author did a great job of showing a simple system that performs over time. Too often we trade to feed our ego, not to make money. I don't know about you, but I just want to make money. The easiest way to do it is to follow the method that others are using to make cash. This book outlined the strategy and showed how others are doing it right now. It almost gives you the edge because you don't have to do the research on what everyone else is doing. This book straightens out the learning curve.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

4 out of 5 stars

Another excellent book, 2008-08-23
Congrats - All the basics are right in front of the reader... The info in this books gives the serious reader a basic structure, and allows them to then build their own personalized methods around a time proven concept.

Eastern Research & Trading
Bill G. / Singapore

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Very good and still works, 2008-08-18
It looks like ideas from this book still works. One of the interesting example of similar approach - Alexander Rezviakov in Russia, whose approach very similar to approach in this book. Even ideas like "...looking at the news for decision-making cues was the wrong thing to do.". Very interesting, that Alexander start his public lectures about a year before this book was published.

Maybe Donchinan's channels are old-fashioned nowadays, but main idea - turn off TV, focus at the price, catch the trend, use stops and some other - is still is up to date.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3 out of 5 stars

Nature vs. nurture, 2008-07-18
The book will be very interesting for readers who are new to trading literature and moderately interesting to those who have already read about trading, and trend trading in particular (I've read the author's magnum opus "Trend Following" and recommend it strongly).

As to the guide motive of The Complete Turtle Trader I wasn't convinced that "The Turtle experiment proved that nurture trumps nature" as the author states repeatedly. Why?

1/The Turtles were recruited not randomly but in a careful selection process. Clearly, they were perceived by R.Dennis as candidates having certain natural potential to become traders when nurtured/trained.

2/Turtles didn't risk their own money which seems the number one obstacle to trading success - a psychological one, it is called fear, while all the Turtles had to fear was not following through on job description provided by R.Dennis and W. Eckhardt, helpful indeed, although still not an easy task. Why only a small minority of the original group remained successful traders, or traders at all, after the experiment was over(many turned school teachers we learn)? In my opinion the conclusive experiment started rather then ended when the group got disbanded.

3/This point is less important than the earlier two - Turtles didn't develop their methods which is an intellectual challenge, in fact less formidable than the psychological challenge of trading, and also weren't faced with the question whether or not to adjust their methods when and if markets changed. As far as I know the 20 day breakout they applied with success during the time of the experiment doesn't work nearly as well as it did (famous L.Raschke, one of J.Schwager's Market Wizzards, has coined the name "Turtle Soup" for one of her trading setups - fading the 20-day breakout.

In conclusion: narture alone can very often be insufficient to become and remain successful at trading.

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