#7 Turtle Trading System

The difference between a professional trader and an amateur is that a professional has a system and sticks to it, he trusts it, he makes his trades every time the signal is given, he has confidence in the systems edge. The professional understands money management and knows how to build on winning positions.

The amateur is hopping around from system to system with out every really learning one and understanding the edge...... The amateur is impatient and does not understand money management or position building.
The amateur is always looking for the holy grail that does not exist.

Dear Edward and friends,

I've been gone through all the strategies mentioned in simple, basics and scalping sections. I really believe the simpler they are the more profitable they remain over the decades. Yes decades or why is it that we are learning technical analysis written 25, 50 years back or even more.

I don't how many are aware of the Turtle Traders by Richard Dennis. If not then Google it. The turtle traders have given more than 50% Return every year for past two decades. I've read the book "Way of the turtle" by Curtis Faith, he himself is a turtle trader. The turtle trader had been given a set of rules to follow, a completely designed system. The system had everything from entry and exit rule to money management.

To mark the initial stop loss, the rule was 2*(Average True Range). Since we have alot of users and Edward himself experimenting alot of systems, I want to know your opinion about the 2*(Average True Range) as initial stop loss.

I'll be glad if someone can prepare an EA for the same, so that we can test on different time frames like H1, H4, D1 etc.

Rajat Verma
pipsignal(at)aol.in

I agree with that:

The biggest problem is finding a working system

Hi PH,

try downloading this zipped file: TurtleTrader.zip

Copy file TurtleTrader.ex4 inside Metatrader4 folder /Experts/Indicators.
Restart the platform. You should be able to see your new indicator among custom indicators.

If you have any difficulties downloading or running the indicator, please use your contact form below and I'll send you files and instructions via email.

Regards,
Edward

Hi, can anyone help me out here, I can't seem to download the TurtleTrader.ex4. What software program shall I use to be able to download and open the file.

Tks a mil.
PH

I have tried the turtle trading method in forex and the results did NOT amaze me:
the method worked ONLY in daily charts. I tested the method for EURUSD using 2 year old historical data. Results: around +40%.
In stock markets this method is not very good, for instance the basic double moving average system can result in bigger profits that the turtle method.
Sorry, but I just get the big fuzz around this method.

Everyone always says that the biggest problem in trading is to constantly be able to follow one's rules. But I disagree! The biggest problem is finding a working system.

Oh, well, Mike

The system is one of the oldest, I believe, and is very conservative. The method of accepting numerous small losses while waiting for a big win is exactly the strategy you'd use as a long term investor. Generally, it looks like a series of attempts to enter a trade at a small risk at major support/resistance level and see if that's been a correct moment to run for a large winner, otherwise take a small loss and try again later.

Regarding Turtle traders, they use breakouts out of the highest/lowest price range of 20 and 55 days (system 1 and system 2 respectively).

I tried to make a simplified version of the Turtle rules and left just the very basics, which may help to understand the key points of the strategy: Turtle_rules_simplified.pdf

Also to Rebecca:

I've found another indicator that shows exact same channels, but allows you to see and change channel settings.

turtlechanneli.mq4

You'd need to follow the channels, the part when they run flat, and once price trades outside the flat channel, it is your signal to enter while indicator will simply shift up or down to adjust to a new daily range.

With this new indicator and a simplified version of Turtle rules above I hope you'll be able to figure out the trading principle.
Let me know, because I don't trade with this strategy and would need to re-read it thoroughly otherwise in order to advise anything further. Either way, I'm always here to help.

Best regards,
Edward

Hi Edward
I have downloaded the Turtle file and applied to currency pairs. I do not know how to read breakouts referred to in the pdf file. Is there someone who is applying to forex and can explain? Thanks for what you do. Rebecca

Hi Edward,

I'm surprised know one has asked this yet, but, does this system adapt well to forex? Does it work in forex? Which time frames etc. Could you give an outline of how this system works, ie. a step by step guide, like the other systems have? Would you be able to show the indicators on the chart etc? I know I'm asking allot! So thank you very much for any help you can give!

P.S. Has anyone tried this system yet? How is it going? It seems to me to be the reverse of what traders normally do: take lots of small profits and then one big loss! This seems to be lots of small losses, but waiting for the big jump? Is this correct? I've only read the PDF a couple of times.

Cheers.

Kind regards.

Mike.

Thank you, LC

The link has been fixed. Please try again.

Happy trading!

Edward

Hi, Edward.

First, thanks for building this site. It's very helpful for me.
I want to download file 'turtlerules.pdf' but it said file or page cannot be found. Could you give a new link, please?

Hope you can answer this soon.

Thanks for your generosity.

Regards,
LC

The "Turtle" trading program started by Richard Dennis is, by any measure, one of the greatest success stories in the entire history of trading.Here's a brief background: Richard Dennis was a successful (he turned a $400 family loan into $200 million!) Chicago trader and money manager who firmly believed that successful trading methods could be taught. His partner disagreed. Dennis then went out and recruited 14 people -­ some of whom had NO trading experience -­ and taught them his trading methods. He called them his "Turtles" and, after a brief training period, they went on to become masters of the markets.

Thanks pal for this generous contribution.

"I always say that you could publish my rules in a newspaper and no one would follow them. The key is constancy and discipline. Almost anybody can make up a set of rules 80% as good as, what we qualified our people. What they couldn't do is give them the self-confidence to stick to that system even when things are going bad."

Richard Dennis, Father of the Turtles.

Here's the Indicators for Traders who used Metatrader 4 Platform, used only Daily Charts Timeframe; & here's the Download Link:

TurtleTrader.ex4

Enjoy ... :-)