originalturtles.com....how reliable are they ?

[mcovel]

My first book was "Trend Following" (new edition Feb 09). My second book was "The Complete TurtleTrader". I am not sure if you have the order mixed up, but I have yet to see anyone state that my second book "The Complete TurtleTrader" was a rehash of "Trend Following"! "The Complete TurtleTrader" is the only source for the complete Turtle story from start to finish. It details all rules, but even more than that it fills in the backstory of why many Turtles failed -- all in a very detailed narrative. Trend following trading is always about the rules, but it is just as much a philosophy/psychology. Seeing how some Turtles handled it and how some did not, is eye-opening.

A review from Brett Steenbarger:
http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2007/10/turtle-trading-lessons-from-michael.html

An article from Trader Monthly:
http://trendfollowing.com/whitepaper/turtle-article.pdf

 

[AyePee]

As usual, i have not quite made myself as clear as I would like (I guess that is why you are the author, and I am the trader).

To be clear, for me personally, your second book didnt add a lot to my trading. (where as, your first book did). This isnt to say the second book is of no value, it is just that I found the first book much more valuable, for advancing my trading. I found the second book much more entertaining, and a very interesting, and well told story....but it didnt add a lot to my trading. I am sure for others, this would be different.

I didnt mean rubbish your second book.....apologies if it came across that way.

I have read Trend Following about 10 times. Whenever I have no new books to read, I read it again. It is a fabulous book.

Cheers,

AP

 

[mcovel]

Cheers!
Mike

 

[salvadorveiga]

Hello everyone.

This is my first post, and what a great forum this is... especially being able to chat with such personalities.

I've read both books. They are different and both are very good. I don't care if Curtis was better or not, if he made the most money... probably he didn't and failed as a trader. Nonetheless his book is very good, and gives insight on how we should approach on building a system. What should we go for, what should we look for when analysing and backtesting, etc... It's a more technical book, where you analyse your data and play with statistics.

Michael's book is an all together different book. While it explores a bit of technicals by the end, it doesn't give such a thourough approach as Curtis'. And it shouldn't...

They're different books. I think Michael's is more of a narrative on trend following and how the strategy is better than buy and hold, etc which it is... the book is more focused in interviews, how trend followers were able to grab such moves, reviews past perfomances of trend followers, and gives away what the philosophy of trend following is...

Both books are very good, while Michael's book is a very good one I think CF's book is needed if you want to go deeper and start playing yourself with systems.

Like someone in here stated before, a system is very easy to come by with... the trust and psychological side and consistency that you put in it, well that's a different story.

I thank both CF and Michael for the books since they've enlightened me... they are definetely a must read for any trader in my opinion

P.S: I'm referring of course to Trend Following... michael's 2nd book for me didn't hit as much as Trend Following, simply because it is "just" a narrative story, who they were, what happened etc...

I find his first book way more valuable, and I agree with him that it is as much as philosophy/psychologically as a system, probably even more... that, and money/risk management is key.

 

[mcovel]

The Complete TurtleTrader

P.S: I'm referring of course to Trend Following... michael's 2nd book [The Complete TurtleTrader] for me didn't hit as much as Trend Following, simply because it is "just" a narrative story, who they were, what happened etc...

Thanks for the overall feedback, but for clarification the above comment is an oversimplification:

1. The Complete TurtleTrader chapters 4 and 5 are the "Turtle" philosophy and rules.
2. The Complete TurtleTrader is the only book that names the names and lists the performance of the subjects involved. No other book does that. Trying to learn what happened with the Turtles from one Turtle alone, especially from one who has had a substantial amount of controversy (i.e. Faith's firm blowing up ending in a government investigation with a permanent bar) is unwise. For example, I don't think many people are walking around saying Madoff knows what he is talking about now.
3. The Complete TurtleTrader is the only book that goes into the real psychology of what actually happened in the experiment and after, not simply affixing to theory found in behavioral finance texts. The Turtle story uncovered in The Complete TurtleTrader is great since it shows what happened -- something that many of the Turtles clearly did not what readers to know about. The Turtle story is still to this date rife with mystery and subterfuge. Legends deserving and legends undeserving. My book is the only source that lays out the truth bare.

I will soon be providing many of the audio tapes that were behind my book. They will add even more insight to this topic.

 

[jammixmaster]

So........I'm guessing no one actually uses the Turtle system

 

[badbart]

So........I'm guessing no one actually uses the Turtle system

I have traded the original system and it worked well. I think the lesson from the turtles is you can trade a totally mechanical system very well if you adhere 100% to the systems signals. I still trade with the basic philosophy with a slightly different system but still rely 100% on the signals for entry and exits.

 

[meanreversion]

Check out tradingblox.com/forum, it's a good site for mechanical traders.