The Experiment

Legendary trader Richard Dennis set out to prove that anyone could learn forex trading with the right education and mindset – he believed that traders were made not born and set out to prove his point.

He gathered a group of people together who only had one thing in common – they had never traded before. They included a security guard,  some professional card players, an actor, a female auditor and a kid fresh from school just to name a few.

The Results

After 14 days of trading education he set them off to trade and the result was:

They made $100 million for him in just 4 years and went on to make a lot more and become some of the most famous traders of all time.

The Education

So what did Dennis teach them? He taught them a very simple forex trading method which was basically a long term breakout strategy combined with rigorous money management rules to preserve equity.

Dennis knew however that a trading system is not enough to succeed its having the discipline to follow it through long periods that is. He made sure the traders he taught knew how and why the system worked and even when it lost he taught them to stick with it and not deviate from the rules.

Rules are rules and must be followed with discipline – if you don’t have the discipline

This took him just 14 days and the rest is history.

What You CAN Learn

There are several lessons that you can learn and the salient ones are outlines below.

1. Everything about forex trading can be learned

If you have the willingness to apply yourself. OK you may not become as successful as this group – but there is a big difference between something being impossible and something being achievable.

2. Simple systems work best!

Today many people think that the more complicated a system is the more likely it is to be successful – but this is simply not true. Simple systems have always worked best and always will, because they are more robust with fewer elements to break.

He also taught rigid money management and made the first priority the protection of capital. If you lose what you have you can’t trade anymore.

It’s a bit like the old obvious gambling saying – to win you need to bet – but you can’t bet, if you don’t have any chips! Obvious but true, so you play great defense first and the profits will come, when the right opportunities present themselves.

3.  Discipline is the key

You will here it time and time again how discipline is the key to forex trading success and it is – if you don’t have the discipline to follow your method you have no method.

Discipline comes from confidence in what you are doing, this is why he taught the turtles how and why the system worked and didn’t tell them to follow it blindly.

Trading success comes from within and this means acquiring confidence and discipline.

So if you want to learn forex trading correctly, learn from the turtles:

The potential is huge, you only need a simple system, good money management and most importantly – the confidence and the discipline to apply what you have learned.

The reason most traders never succeed is they never learn the importance of the latter and want to follow others – but you don’t get these traits following others, they come from within.

They had no experience of trading yet in just 14 days they were taught to trade and went onto become trading legends and make millions.

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.