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The Complete TurtleTrader: The Legend, the Lessons, the Results |  | Author: Michael W. Covel
Publisher: HarperBusiness
Category: Book
List Price: $25.99
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Rating:  115 reviews
Sales Rank: 110078
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0061241709
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.6440973
EAN: 9780061241703
ASIN: 0061241709
Publication Date: October 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
We read constantly about the men and women who make nine- and ten-figure fortunes in the markets-the Warren Buffetts, Paul Tudor Joneses, and Michael Milkens of the world. Do they have some incredible gift the rest of us lack, an ability to make cool decisions under fire when we let emotion get in the way, to coolly assess the impact of each trade as though millions -- or billions -- of dollars aren't riding on the next click of their mouse? Richard Dennis, "the Prince of the Pits," a man who'd already made a fortune on the Street, was convinced that great trading wasn't a gift from God, but something that could be taught to anyone. So one day he made a bet with his partner, and ran a classified ad in the Wall Street Journal looking for trainees. And he didn't just hire finance professionals: his trainees -- who became known as the "Turtles"-- included an actor, a security guard, two professional blackjack players, a pianist, a fantasy game designer, and others. After two weeks of training, he set them loose, with a $1 million bankroll each to invest as they chose, and the right to keep a share of their trading gains for themselves, as long they adhered to the Turtle system. By the time the program ended, Dennis and his partner had made over $120 million -- from trades made by complete novices. Many of these Turtles then went on to trade for themselves, and some are among the top investors operating today. As fascinating as Dannis and the Turtles' story is, Covel doesn't stop there. He lays out, in detail, the exact system the Turtles used to reap their millions. And because the Turtle system is a form of so-called technical investing, meaning the Turtles weren't concerned about the fundamentals of the investments they made, it is an investing strategy where a Wall Street operator, plugged into the second-by-second madness of finance, has NO advantage over an ordinary investor. And Covel takes us step-by-step through all the details needed to apply this at home.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 115
 I couldn't put this book down. Excellent research combined with detailed facts November 4, 2007
K. Corn (Indianapolis,, IN United States)
71 out of 77 found this review helpful
In The Complete TurtleTraders, author Michael W. Covel tells the riveting account of a group of investors who were led by one remarkable man, Richard Dennis (with the help of his partner, William Eckhardt). Dennis was somewhat of an iconoclast, not brought up through the ranks of Fortune 500 company grooming programs, figuring out his own methods for making money.
Dennis was a successful investor who believed that investing
principles could be taught to anyone. His partner, William Eckhardt, disagreed, tending to believe that the talent was inborn. Their differing views formed the basis for a bet between the two men and led to one of the more remarkable experiments in investing history.
Basically, Dennis agreed to find a diverse group of individuals, give each recruit $1 million dollars, put them through two weeks of intensive training, teach them specific investing principles and methods and see how well they'd do after that. To add to the challenge, Dennis and his partner (who agreed to help teach the recruits) hired people from all walks of life.
Exactly how diverse was the group? Well, there was a security guard, a restaurant manger, an unemployed student, a bartender, kitchen cook, teacher and even a prison worker. Covel describes in detail how Dennis
interviewed and selected each recruit, nicknaming them "The Turtles". He also chronicles their 14 days of intensive training. It wasn't easy but the potential rewards were great.
While the account of the Turtles' experiences is reason enough to buy this book, I want to stress that it is more than the story of that remarkable group of individuals. It is also the profile of Richard Dennis, his background and his own conflicting feelings as the experiment
concluded and a second generation of Turtles came along. At times, it is hard to wonder if the Turtles succeeded too well, leading to mixed feelings in Richard Dennis as some of them surpassed him.
Covel also updates readers about some of the Turtles today. The book is so full of investing principles, guidelines and rules that I don't know how anyone with an interest in learning more about investing, trading or finances could pass this one up!
Pulling Back the Veil December 2, 2007
John Forman (Boston, MA USA)
58 out of 63 found this review helpful
The first impression one gets from The Complete Turtle Trader is quite favorable. It is an attractive format, and a pretty easy read, though well written and detailed. The primary text is about 200 pages, which I got through in a single afternoon (though I do read faster than most). And the price tag is extremely reasonable for a hardcover trading book, much lower than what you often see.
This book definitely continues along the path of the trend trading subject of Covel's earlier book, Trend Following, but does so through the story of the famous Turtles. Readers of Jack Schwager's book, Market Wizards, and it's follow-up, The New Market Wizards, will be familiar with the Turtles. They are the result of a nature vs. nurture running debate between famous futures trader Richard Dennis (a Market Wizard) and his partner William Eckhardt (profiled in The New Market Wizards).
The Turtle program was an effort to determine whether traders can be created, developed through training as opposed to having some innate talent for it. This topic has been the subject of debates in trading circles for probably as long as there has been traders. To a certain degree, the classic movie Trading Places, which was released very near the time of the first Turtle program, has at it's core the same theme.
In The Complete Turtle Trader, as the subtitle suggests, Covel tells the story of the Turtles from the selection process which brought together two very diverse groups of people in 1983 and 1984 all the way through to where they are today. It includes a discussion of their training program, their performance, and of course the ideas underlying the system they employed, one based on trend following. The explanation of the latter is pretty direct - definitely enough to give the reader a really good idea of the way the Turtles were taught to trade, which they did very successfully. Figures to that end are provided throughout the text and in supporting appendices. The author also includes comments on how individual traders can apply the Turtle techniques and philosophy themself.
For someone like myself, who first heard about the Turtles through Schwager's writings, this book was a really interesting back-filling of the story. When Schwager was putting his books together, the Turtles and their instructors were very tight-lipped about the details of the experience. In this book, Covel has been able to flesh things out, not just in a kind of history text sort of exposition, but one which includes a great many comments and annecdotes from the participants. It is a tale which really explores the whole perspective of life as a Turtle.
The story Covel lays out offers a great many insights. Obviously, the first one is that learning how to trade, and to make big returns, is possible. Probably the most interesting part of the narrative, though, (in terms of the story, anyway) is what happened to the Turtles after they left the program. It will come as no surprise that the diversity of their backgrounds and personalities has been reflected in the diversity of what they have done over the intervening years. I was particularly enthralled by the discussion of the adjustments they had to make to be successful as big-time money managers, something their mentor Dennis was never quite able to do.
Overall I consider The Complete Turtle Trader a very enjoyable and worthwhile read. It has a lot of elements, and of course trading strategy. I actually found reinforcement of many of my own trading ideas as I was reading, seeing them in a different light. That's not something which happens much after twenty years of trading and reading books and articles on the subject. Of course not everyone is going to find the fullness of the theory or application behind Turtle trading suitable to them, but it is always worth making an effort to learn from those who have achieved success before us, and that's an opportunity this book provides.
Trading Discipline Taught by a Master November 29, 2007
Craig L. Howe (Darien, CT United States)
48 out of 52 found this review helpful
"Are great traders born or can they be taught?"
This is a question that countless thousands of hours have been squandered pondering. Thanks to Michael W. Covel it is now rendered moot. Great traders can be taught. And having learned the lessons, they can pass the secrets on to others.
Richard J. Dennis, a trading impresario of the Chicago pits in the '70s and '80s, believed anyone with the right training could do it. To prove his point, he and his partner recruited, trained and backed his apprentices with $1 million dollars a piece.
"We are going to grow traders just like they grow turtles in Singapore," Dennis said after seeing a breeding farm there.
In the beginning the Turtles had little in common, other than smarts and the ability to recognize and seize an opportunity. By the time the experiment was over, they had made their employer more than $100 million.
Covel does a masterful job explaining the system. The rules are simple. The discipline and preparation required to implement them is not. They are detailed in two short chapters.
I have never read a "beat the market book." I am too much of a cynic. This book is different. Covel breathes life into the Turtles. His narrative describes their triumphs, frustrations, jealousies and doubts these trading masters experienced. It paints a vivid picture of the trading life and the system that made them so successful.
The Best and Most Complete Book on the Turtles January 1, 2008
D. Buxman (Pueblo, CO United States)
27 out of 28 found this review helpful
I read "The Way of the Turtle," before I read this book, and I've also studied the Turtle trading structure through other resources. Hands-down, this is the most well-researched, comprehensive account of the Turtles, from the origins of the idea, through the selection process of the participants, the mechanical aspects of the trading system and the final results. Michael Covel interviewed just about every person who was willing to talk from this secretive group, and then went beyond the interviews to cross-check information through other sources. The book is meticulously footnoted and cross-referenced, yet written in a lucid style that makes it difficult to put down. While some might argue that the definitive book on Turtle Trading should be written by one of the participants in the experiment, I came to appreciate the author's objectivity in finding out what actually happened by investigating many perspectives from the participants and those on the outside looking in. You won't be disappointed with this book.
A true winner of a book for someone with an interest in learning preliminarily about how to make money as a trader. Twothumbsup! December 8, 2007
Jeff Lippincott (Princeton, NJ USA)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
I loved this book. I couldn't put it down when I had time to read it this week. Unfortunately I've been busy all week and took more time than usual to read a book I intended to review on Amazon. It took me 5 or so sittings to get through this fact filled, informative, and well-written book. Included herein there is much coverage of how commodity traders can successfully buy stocks, futures contracts, and options while primarily caring about price and risk. They buy and sell risk basically.
This book is about technical trading (Richard Dennis style), not fundamental trading (Warren Buffet style). It provides an account of the TurtleTraders' experiences while under the wing of Richard Dennis in the early to mid 1980's. They were doing their thing while I was sitting in an upper level college finance course as the sole accounting major present arguing with a full finance professor about how playing the stock market was nothing more than gambling. I wish I had had Richard Dennis or one of his "turtles" in class to help me win the argument.
This book also provides a profile of sorts on Richard Dennis, and information on what some of the "turtles" are doing today. One of the "turtles" we hear about in the book was Curtis Faith. And he has his own book out on the TurtleTraders called "Way of the Turtle" (ISBN: 00714864X). I haven't read it, but I have peaked at the Amazon reviews for it. Sounds like the instant book being reviewed is better to start with. But that you might put the instant book in some perspective if you read Faith's book later. Just a thought.
You will learn from reading this book that by systematizing your approach to buying and selling stocks, futures contracts, and options based on price and price trends is the way to be successful. You will learn that you will have to build your own system that you are comfortable with and are expert at implementing. You will learn the basics behind the system the "turtles" used back in the 1980s. And that system has no doubt been customized and is successful for many today in 2007. And will be successful in future years.
Don't get this book if you want a cheat sheet on how to win at the stock market. Get this book to help you create your own cheat sheet. Anybody who knocks this book or the Curtis Faith book is being unfair. They obviously wanted something handed to them on a silver platter. Such a book simply does not exist. 5 stars!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 115
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