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Rules You Won’t Follow Don’t Matter

What TurtleTrader.com and the Former Turtle don't tell you is that trading rules are only a small part of   successful trading. The most important aspects of successful trading are confidence, consistency, and discipline.

Rules that you can’t or won’t follow will not do you any good. The Turtles had a lot of reasons to be confident   in the rules they were given. For the most part, we had the confidence to follow them even during losing   periods. Those who didn’t consistently follow the rules didn’t make money and were dropped from the program.

Traders who want to be successful will figure out a way to gain enough confidence in their own rules of trading   to be able to apply them consistently.

As original Turtles, we had it easy. We were given rules by some of the world’s most successful and famous   traders, Richard Dennis and his trading partner Bill Eckhardt. They taught us the rules and the reasons why we   could trust those rules. Then we were placed into an open office with ten other traders who had been taught   those same rules. In some respects it was easier to follow the rules than to not follow the rules. On the whole,   we had the confidence and the discipline to consistently apply the rules we were given. This was the secret of our success as traders.

Those who failed to follow the rules invariably failed as Turtles. Some of them decided they could make more money selling the Turtle rules than they did as Turtles.

The Genesis of the Project

Like many of the other Turtles, it always bothered me that some were making money off the work of Richard   Dennis and Bill Eckhardt without their consent; that these secret-sellers had used the success of the Turtles to   dupe others into spending thousands of dollars on products that were not what they appeared.

I had often thought that a great way to deal with this problem would be to give the Turtle Trading Rules away   for free. Since others had already let the cat out of the bag, and since anyone who really wanted the rules could   already get them by paying, it wouldn’t violate my sense of fair play to reveal them.

When a friend and fellow trader, Arthur Maddock, told me about his ideas for a new site to support traders that   were interested in learning more about system trading (the Turtle Trading Rules being one of the most famous   examples thereof), I suggested that he could differentiate his new site by giving away the rules to the Turtle   Trading System. Therefore, we decided it would be better to form a completely new site with no commercial ties.

Arthur shares my interest in developing the trading industry to move it away from the snake-oil and magical   elixir stage in which it remains. For that reason, it seemed like poetic justice that giving the rules away and   revealing the truth about those who had been selling them would probably end the practice of selling the Turtle   Trading Rules as a way to make money.

So that is what we have done....with a slight twist.

While the rules are free, we respectfully ask that those who gain benefit from the rules and find them valuable   send a donation supporting a charity in honor of Richard Dennis, Bill Eckhardt and the original Turtles. You   can find a copy of the charities favored by the Turtles on the new web site: originalturtles.org.

Curtis Faith, an Original Turtle

Following Rules

As famous trader and father of the Turtles, Richard Dennis said: “I always say that you could publish my trading rules in the newspaper and no one would follow them.   The key is consistency and discipline. Almost anybody can make up a list of rules that are 80% as good as what we taught our people. What they couldn’t do is give them   the confidence to stick to those rules even when things are going bad.” – from Market Wizards, by Jack D. Schwager.