February 9, 2009 - 7:15am
Dennis offered the applicants to move to Chicago where after a 2-week training they could get small wages and some percentage profit. Some sources say that there were several thousands of applicants, and 80 were invited to Chicago for the interview. After a personal meeting and a short interview Richard Dennis has selected 13 “lucky bargees” in 1984 and 10 in 1985. Among the selected people there were an accountant, two unsuccessful traders, a financial adviser, a fantasy game designer, an actor, a security guard, two professional card players, a young boy that have just graduated from school, a stock exchange clerk, and etc. During the following 4 years 3 of those 23 programs participants left Turtles, the others have made successful careers in trading, but for one. According to the report 16 Turtles are known to be trading public funds, other 3 started trading for themselves, and only one had chosen a field different from trading.
Selection
The “entrance exam” consisted of two parts: test and interview. The main selection criteria were quickness of wit and attitude to risk, the latter one was a key factor at that. The first part – test – was to check quickness of wit and consisted of various true and false questions which are available in our attachment. The second part was the main one. It was a king of admittance card to the business of Dennis. To understand the attitude to risk Dennis asked the interviewees to describe the riskiest event in their life. The stories varied depending on the participants. So, one of them told that he “drove an hour to a basketball game without having a ticket to get in” while another applicant confessed to driving across Saudi Arabia for several months with whiskey in his car trunk. Actually it was very risky since alcohol is prohibited in that country and the man violated country regulations. Dennis decided to choose the first one and to dismiss the second one. As it has already been mentioned Dennis selected 14 people who swore to secrecy for 20 years about what went on behind the closed doors of that meeting room. And it is necessary to say that none of them broke that code of silence.
Why Turtles?
Before the launch of the program Richard Dennis wanted to open some business not connected with stock markets. Actually he wanted to buy a farm in Florida to breed turtles. He even went to Asia to learn the peculiarities of turtle breeding. Having started the program immediately after his trip Dennis remembered the images of small turtles that were to become real giants. Exactly that idea came to his mind when it came to the title of the program. “We are going to grow traders just like they grow turtles in Singapore,” he explained. Nobody objected.
Study
For a long time there was no information about lectures conducted during the training since as it was mentioned above all the so-called students promised to keep silence and not to disclose anything they studied during the lectures. “Mr. Dennis provided classroom training for two weeks, teaching the fundamentals of commodity trading and the principals behind his methods of trading. In general, Mr. Dennis is known as a trend-following trader that is one who determines that a market is moving up or down and then takes an appropriate position to profit from that movement,” said one of the Turtles.
Bill Eckhardt also actively participated in training, teaching the student and sharing all the information he knew. Both great traders opened all their trading secrets that had brought them millions of dollars. Lectures were followed by the practical classes.
In 20 years, a period of secrecy demanded by Richard Dennis, the participants of the program started to write books, to open educational courses to teach trading. The first Turtle who has published a book was Curtis Faith. His "Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders" which was published in April 2007 became a real bestseller. Curtis Faith in his book described all the details of their educational program including methods of trading, way of trading, and secrets of trading. The book has attracted both beginners and professional traders.
At the end of the course Dennis gave each Turtle a million and let them start their own way. The author of the book Way of the Turtle has got even 2 million since he considered Curtis Faith one of his best students. When Curtis Faith came to the program he was just 19 years old. In a couple of years he earned $31 million!
Success
The way of each Turtle was a great success. So, according to the reports the first year was the most difficult one. However, starting from 1985 the business went up. During four years all Turtles have earned an aggregate sum of over $100 million dollars. Speaking about each Turtle personally we can say that James DiMaria got 74% in 1985, 132% in 1986, 97% in 1987 and 31% in 1988. Actually almost all the traders had almost the same results. About the results of the brilliant Curtis Faith we have already mentioned above. Who knows what positions and results could Turtles gain but for the mistake of Richard Dennis that cost millions of dollars. The great trader had to disband his own fund Drexel Fund where among other traders Turtles worked. So, Turtles started their own way.
Almost all Tutles continued trading at the market. Some of them had started their own business, and founded the firms which traded the funds of the clients. The companies founded by ex-Turtles entered Top 20 of CTA list.
Each Turtle chose his or her way of trading, aggressiveness level and etc., however all the principles were based on the knowledge obtained from Dennis and Eckhardt. Many other traders tried to guess those principles but all of them failed. Who knows maybe multimillion publications of the books written by ex-Turtles will help to solve this problem. Some Turtles have launched their own educational programs teaching how to trade. The most successful educational program is TurtleTrader.com founded by the leading Turtle traders.
Last Word
Richard Dennis has won that bet and proved not only his close friend William Eckhardt but the whole world that it is not necessary to be born with ability to make huge profits from successful futures trading, one can just learn the necessary principles. To be a successful trader it is necessary to choose your own trading strategy basing on your personal abilities, then you need some luck and one dollar will turn into millions in your pockets!
This story became a golden legend of the investment market. A story of a debate of two most successful traders, Bill Eckhardt and Richard Dennis, also known as Turtle story, made a real revolution in the world of trading. Richard Dennis, a real genius of the trading industry, made a real sensation and even revolution in investment industry having proved his friend and the whole world that trading sense can be not only inborn but acquired as well. Actually Dennis didn’t intend to make any revolution. It was just an ordinary debate between two friends about whether great traders were born or made. Richard Dennis, being a well-known commodities trader was sure that he could reach the people to trade; however his long-time friend and business partner William Eckhardt had quite an opposite point of view thinking that genetics was a determining factor here.
Bet
After several hours of hot disputes the two friends made a $1 bet. The meaning of the wager was as following: Dennis was to recruit and train some people not related to trading, give them actual accounts to trade and finally prove that traders can be made. Actually, it wasn’t just altruism and a desire to show his correctness. Having made the qualified traders Dennis automatically obtained a team of the professionals who could increase his profits. Also such team secured him the profits gained by his scheme, and he had an opportunity to develop his strategies that could bring him extra bonuses.
So, following the dispute, in the end of 1983 and then again in 1984 the millions of readers of the Wall Street Journal, Barron and New York Times have found an announcement that a successful commodities trader Richard Dennis searches for people who wanted to become traders. It was a real shock for the society since even at those times Richard Dennis was a legend. Richard Dennis started his career at the age of 17 with $1200 as a startup budget; in 7 years when Dennis reached his 25 he gained his first million. It happened so, that he became a real icon, and the commodity futures prices could rise only because of a rumor that Richard Dennis became interested in them. Those times people called him "Prince of the Pit.” By the time of the bet with Eckhardt, Dennis reached his 40s, and gained more than one million, hence such announcement was a strike for the society.
Bet
After several hours of hot disputes the two friends made a $1 bet. The meaning of the wager was as following: Dennis was to recruit and train some people not related to trading, give them actual accounts to trade and finally prove that traders can be made. Actually, it wasn’t just altruism and a desire to show his correctness. Having made the qualified traders Dennis automatically obtained a team of the professionals who could increase his profits. Also such team secured him the profits gained by his scheme, and he had an opportunity to develop his strategies that could bring him extra bonuses.
So, following the dispute, in the end of 1983 and then again in 1984 the millions of readers of the Wall Street Journal, Barron and New York Times have found an announcement that a successful commodities trader Richard Dennis searches for people who wanted to become traders. It was a real shock for the society since even at those times Richard Dennis was a legend. Richard Dennis started his career at the age of 17 with $1200 as a startup budget; in 7 years when Dennis reached his 25 he gained his first million. It happened so, that he became a real icon, and the commodity futures prices could rise only because of a rumor that Richard Dennis became interested in them. Those times people called him "Prince of the Pit.” By the time of the bet with Eckhardt, Dennis reached his 40s, and gained more than one million, hence such announcement was a strike for the society.
Dennis offered the applicants to move to Chicago where after a 2-week training they could get small wages and some percentage profit. Some sources say that there were several thousands of applicants, and 80 were invited to Chicago for the interview. After a personal meeting and a short interview Richard Dennis has selected 13 “lucky bargees” in 1984 and 10 in 1985. Among the selected people there were an accountant, two unsuccessful traders, a financial adviser, a fantasy game designer, an actor, a security guard, two professional card players, a young boy that have just graduated from school, a stock exchange clerk, and etc. During the following 4 years 3 of those 23 programs participants left Turtles, the others have made successful careers in trading, but for one. According to the report 16 Turtles are known to be trading public funds, other 3 started trading for themselves, and only one had chosen a field different from trading.
Selection
The “entrance exam” consisted of two parts: test and interview. The main selection criteria were quickness of wit and attitude to risk, the latter one was a key factor at that. The first part – test – was to check quickness of wit and consisted of various true and false questions which are available in our attachment. The second part was the main one. It was a king of admittance card to the business of Dennis. To understand the attitude to risk Dennis asked the interviewees to describe the riskiest event in their life. The stories varied depending on the participants. So, one of them told that he “drove an hour to a basketball game without having a ticket to get in” while another applicant confessed to driving across Saudi Arabia for several months with whiskey in his car trunk. Actually it was very risky since alcohol is prohibited in that country and the man violated country regulations. Dennis decided to choose the first one and to dismiss the second one. As it has already been mentioned Dennis selected 14 people who swore to secrecy for 20 years about what went on behind the closed doors of that meeting room. And it is necessary to say that none of them broke that code of silence.
Why Turtles?
Before the launch of the program Richard Dennis wanted to open some business not connected with stock markets. Actually he wanted to buy a farm in Florida to breed turtles. He even went to Asia to learn the peculiarities of turtle breeding. Having started the program immediately after his trip Dennis remembered the images of small turtles that were to become real giants. Exactly that idea came to his mind when it came to the title of the program. “We are going to grow traders just like they grow turtles in Singapore,” he explained. Nobody objected.
Study
For a long time there was no information about lectures conducted during the training since as it was mentioned above all the so-called students promised to keep silence and not to disclose anything they studied during the lectures. “Mr. Dennis provided classroom training for two weeks, teaching the fundamentals of commodity trading and the principals behind his methods of trading. In general, Mr. Dennis is known as a trend-following trader that is one who determines that a market is moving up or down and then takes an appropriate position to profit from that movement,” said one of the Turtles.
Bill Eckhardt also actively participated in training, teaching the student and sharing all the information he knew. Both great traders opened all their trading secrets that had brought them millions of dollars. Lectures were followed by the practical classes.
In 20 years, a period of secrecy demanded by Richard Dennis, the participants of the program started to write books, to open educational courses to teach trading. The first Turtle who has published a book was Curtis Faith. His "Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders" which was published in April 2007 became a real bestseller. Curtis Faith in his book described all the details of their educational program including methods of trading, way of trading, and secrets of trading. The book has attracted both beginners and professional traders.
At the end of the course Dennis gave each Turtle a million and let them start their own way. The author of the book Way of the Turtle has got even 2 million since he considered Curtis Faith one of his best students. When Curtis Faith came to the program he was just 19 years old. In a couple of years he earned $31 million!
Success
The way of each Turtle was a great success. So, according to the reports the first year was the most difficult one. However, starting from 1985 the business went up. During four years all Turtles have earned an aggregate sum of over $100 million dollars. Speaking about each Turtle personally we can say that James DiMaria got 74% in 1985, 132% in 1986, 97% in 1987 and 31% in 1988. Actually almost all the traders had almost the same results. About the results of the brilliant Curtis Faith we have already mentioned above. Who knows what positions and results could Turtles gain but for the mistake of Richard Dennis that cost millions of dollars. The great trader had to disband his own fund Drexel Fund where among other traders Turtles worked. So, Turtles started their own way.
Almost all Tutles continued trading at the market. Some of them had started their own business, and founded the firms which traded the funds of the clients. The companies founded by ex-Turtles entered Top 20 of CTA list.
Each Turtle chose his or her way of trading, aggressiveness level and etc., however all the principles were based on the knowledge obtained from Dennis and Eckhardt. Many other traders tried to guess those principles but all of them failed. Who knows maybe multimillion publications of the books written by ex-Turtles will help to solve this problem. Some Turtles have launched their own educational programs teaching how to trade. The most successful educational program is TurtleTrader.com founded by the leading Turtle traders.
Last Word
Richard Dennis has won that bet and proved not only his close friend William Eckhardt but the whole world that it is not necessary to be born with ability to make huge profits from successful futures trading, one can just learn the necessary principles. To be a successful trader it is necessary to choose your own trading strategy basing on your personal abilities, then you need some luck and one dollar will turn into millions in your pockets!
Comments