The author of this book is Micheal W. Covel, an author, blogger and entrepreneur. He has two websites: TurtleTrader.com and TrendFollowing.com. I was attracted by the title as the term TurtleTrader intrigued me. What is a TurtleTrader? How did they turn from novices to millionaires overnight?
Layout of The Complete TurtleTrader
This book has a total of 14 chapters.
The first three chapters discuss about the origin of the Turtles.
The next two chapters elucidate the philosophy and rules of trading employed by the Turtles.
Chapter 6 to 8 talk about the environment of trading and the progress of the Turtles.
The following chapters chronicle the events after the shutdown of the Turtle program and the emergence of second-generation Turtles.
The last chapter is the conclusion of this book.
Highlights
After reading through the first few pages, I realized that this book is actually about technical analysis. But I am a fundamental investor. Having said so, the story is still interesting enough for me to continue reading. Why do I say it is a story? Because this book uses a writing style that resembles documentary. The gist of the trading style is in chapter 4 and 5. The other chapters are more like a chronology of what happened to the Turtle experiment.
The book mentions about three trading systems: System One (S1), System Two (S2) and System Three (S3). I will give the details of S1 here. It uses a four-week price breakout for entry and a two-week price breakout in the opposite direction of the entry breakout for an exit. Essentially, the systems govern the entries and exits of the traders. To be able to follow these systems, one must endure periods of inactivity and has great discipline.
The origin of Turtle name is said to be the nickname Richard Dennis used for his students, inspired by a turtle-breeding farm in Singapore. And the students did not turn to millionaires overnight. It takes some time for some of them (not everyone) to be a millionaire instead.
Conclusion
This book is about technical trading and trend following. Although I personally use fundamental analysis, I do think that we can learn from another field. With this newfound knowledge, maybe we are able to improve our investing technique.
Will I recommend this book? If you like to read financial story or use technical analysis, I think it is okay. But if you are a fundamental investor like me, I think it is better for you to save your money for another book.
As usual, before I end, I will share some witty quotes from the book.
“Innate talent alone is never enough.”
“Intelligence ensures absolutely nothing in the long run; success requires something more.”
“Don’t try to predict how long a trend wither up or down will last. It is impossible.”
“If there was a “secret,” he knew that you had to be able to accept losses both psychologically and physiologically.”
“Eckhardt was saying that, as with anything in life, most people know what the right thing to do is but fail to do it.”
Recommended book
If you are interested in The Complete TurtleTrader, you may get the book from Kinokuniya Malaysia through the link below*.
*Disclosure: The above link is Involve Asia affiliate link. Thus, I may earn a small commission when you purchase the book through this link.
