The Ugly Truth about the System Sellers
I’ve been trading and hanging around trading circles since high school. One of the sad
realities of the trading industry, and the futures trading industry in particular, is that
there are far more people making money selling others’ systems and “ways to make
money trading,” than there are people actually making money trading.
I won’t go into specifics here, but those of us who actually trade for a living know the
names of many “famous traders” who are famous as “traders,” but that don’t make
money as traders. They make money selling new trading systems, seminars, home
study courses, etc. Most of these so called “experts” can’t trade and don’t trade the
systems that they sell.
Yes, this is also true of those selling the Turtle Trading Rules. Consider the major
sellers: the first, a web site, TurtleTrader.com, and the second, a former turtle. Here’s
what they won’t tell you:
TurtleTrader.com - A web site run mainly by one guy (an admittedly talented web
marketer that also has a pharmacy site and a site that sells personality tests),
turtletrader.com purports to have the actual Turtle Trading Rules, and will sell them to
you for $999.00. The site is filled with huge amounts of information about trading, and
bills itself as the “No. 1 Source for Trend Following Worldwide.”
What they don’t tell you is that the site is run by a guy who doesn’t even trade his own
rules—or trade at all for that matter—and has never been a successful trader. Yet he
purports to be an expert on the “Turtle Trading Rules,” and on trend following!
You can get something close to the actual rules from this site, but you won’t get any
expert advice from the guy who runs it. All you will get is the regurgitation of advice
from other traders that is not tempered by the experience of a successful trading career.
Paying for advice from this source is a lot like hiring a blind guide.
In the final analysis, TurtleTrader.com is not any better than other scams and system
selling hucksters he warns about. It is a site run by a guy who appears to me to be more
interested in taking his customers’ money than he is in their success with the system he
sells; a site run by someone who misrepresents himself as an expert in trend following,
yet doesn’t mention that he doesn’t trade.
The money-back guarantee is almost worthless; you have to keep a log of all your
trades and prove that you made them in the markets by providing your brokerage
statements. If you don’t like the rules and want your money back, it seems exceedingly
unlikely that you would open a trading account and then trade for a year just to get the
refund.
Former Turtle - This individual, a former turtle, sells tapes, books, hotlines, videos,
seminars, and more, for prices ranging from $29.95 to $2,500.
What the Former Turtle won’t tell you is that he never made money as a turtle; in fact
he didn’t last a full year as a turtle before he was fired from the turtle program because
he couldn’t trade the Turtle System Rules successfully. He lost money while most of
the other traders were making a lot of money.
The Former Turtle lends credence to the oft quoted maxim: “Those that can do, those
that can’t teach.”
I haven’t seen the seminar or read the books, but I can’t imagine how someone who
couldn’t make money after having been taught directly by Richard Dennis can explain
to others how to trade using the Turtle Trading Rules.
I’ve been trading and hanging around trading circles since high school. One of the sad
realities of the trading industry, and the futures trading industry in particular, is that
there are far more people making money selling others’ systems and “ways to make
money trading,” than there are people actually making money trading.
I won’t go into specifics here, but those of us who actually trade for a living know the
names of many “famous traders” who are famous as “traders,” but that don’t make
money as traders. They make money selling new trading systems, seminars, home
study courses, etc. Most of these so called “experts” can’t trade and don’t trade the
systems that they sell.
Yes, this is also true of those selling the Turtle Trading Rules. Consider the major
sellers: the first, a web site, TurtleTrader.com, and the second, a former turtle. Here’s
what they won’t tell you:
TurtleTrader.com - A web site run mainly by one guy (an admittedly talented web
marketer that also has a pharmacy site and a site that sells personality tests),
turtletrader.com purports to have the actual Turtle Trading Rules, and will sell them to
you for $999.00. The site is filled with huge amounts of information about trading, and
bills itself as the “No. 1 Source for Trend Following Worldwide.”
What they don’t tell you is that the site is run by a guy who doesn’t even trade his own
rules—or trade at all for that matter—and has never been a successful trader. Yet he
purports to be an expert on the “Turtle Trading Rules,” and on trend following!
You can get something close to the actual rules from this site, but you won’t get any
expert advice from the guy who runs it. All you will get is the regurgitation of advice
from other traders that is not tempered by the experience of a successful trading career.
Paying for advice from this source is a lot like hiring a blind guide.
In the final analysis, TurtleTrader.com is not any better than other scams and system
selling hucksters he warns about. It is a site run by a guy who appears to me to be more
interested in taking his customers’ money than he is in their success with the system he
sells; a site run by someone who misrepresents himself as an expert in trend following,
yet doesn’t mention that he doesn’t trade.
The money-back guarantee is almost worthless; you have to keep a log of all your
trades and prove that you made them in the markets by providing your brokerage
statements. If you don’t like the rules and want your money back, it seems exceedingly
unlikely that you would open a trading account and then trade for a year just to get the
refund.
Former Turtle - This individual, a former turtle, sells tapes, books, hotlines, videos,
seminars, and more, for prices ranging from $29.95 to $2,500.
What the Former Turtle won’t tell you is that he never made money as a turtle; in fact
he didn’t last a full year as a turtle before he was fired from the turtle program because
he couldn’t trade the Turtle System Rules successfully. He lost money while most of
the other traders were making a lot of money.
The Former Turtle lends credence to the oft quoted maxim: “Those that can do, those
that can’t teach.”
I haven’t seen the seminar or read the books, but I can’t imagine how someone who
couldn’t make money after having been taught directly by Richard Dennis can explain
to others how to trade using the Turtle Trading Rules.