The $100M Trading Experiment That Proved Discipline Beats Talent
In 1983, Richard Dennis — one of the greatest traders alive — set out to answer a simple question:
Are great traders born… or made?
He hired 13 everyday people. Trained them for two weeks. Gave them $1M accounts. The result?
An average 80%+ annual return for four years. These were the Turtle Traders.
Their system was simple:
✅ Buy breakouts (20-day & 55-day highs/lows)
📏 Use volatility-based sizing (ATR = N)
➕ Add to winners every 0.5N
🛑 Stop out at 2N loss
🏁 Exit winners on 10–20 day reversals
But the real edge? Discipline.
Most traders fail not because their system is bad — but because they don’t follow the rules when it gets tough.
Dennis said it best:
“You could publish my rules in the newspaper and no one would follow them.”
The Turtle system still works — if you can work it.
It’s not about being smart.
It’s about being consistent.
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