How did they do it?

If you want to learn forex trading and be successful then their story will point you in the right direction.

The Debate

In 1984, legendary trader Richard Dennis taught a simple technical trend following system to a group of students, to prove that, trading was a skill that could be specifically learned. Dennis was settling a debate with his friend William Eckhardt, who believed successful trading was a skill that was a gift, while Dennis believed it anyone could be taught it.

Who Were The Turtles?

They were all from diverse backgrounds and the only thing they had in common was that they had never traded before. They included a boy fresh out school, a security guard, some professional card players, a bookkeeper and even an actor.

Dennis believed that anyone who wanted to be a successful trader needed to focus on three specific areas:

1. A simple technical system they could understand and have confidence in.

2. A set of money management rules to preserve equity.

3. A discipline to apply their methods through periods of losses without deviating from their system.

In the turtle trading experiment Dennis gave the turtles a simple system and taught them the RIGHT MINDSET to be successful.

A Simple system & money management rules

The system taught was simplicity itself and was designed to be easy to understand easy to apply, yet one the turtles could have complete confidence in. The system was based on breakout methodology, with just a few rules to confirm trading signals, backed up by strict money management rules to preserve equity.

If you want to learn forex trading, you need to understand that your system should be simple. One of the biggest myths of trading is that a complicated system is more likely to succeed than a simple one. In fact, most of the worlds top trading systems are simple and as a general rule, a robust simple system with just a few indicators will beat a more complicated one.

Why?

Because in the brutal world of trading, simple systems are more robust than complicated ones with less elements to break. In trading you don't earn your reward from the effort you put in, you earn it for being right about market direction. With any system you need money management rules and Dennis gave them a simple set of rules that would preserve their equity. The knowledge Dennis gave his pupils gave them confidence which is crucial, in that it leads to discipline.

Discipline

If you are confident and understand a system you will follow it with discipline. Most traders don't have discipline, because they don't have ultimate confidence in their method, as soon as a string of losses occur they throw in the towel. If you don't have the discipline to follow a method, you really have no method in the first place.

What can we learn from the turtles?

Quite simply, that anyone can learn to trade and trading success is within reach of anyone with a willingness to learn and apply what they have learned. You may not make as much money as the turtles, however if you focus on developing a robust method you understand, have confidence in and can apply with discipline, you can be a successful trader.

The turtles worked smart not hard to achieve trading success and their story is inspiring for anyone wishing to learn forex trading.