The Turtle Traders: The $100M Wild Bet of the 80s That Succeeded… Or Failed?

For this week's story instead of screaming about how stupid most people are and trying to teach you basic economics. I brought you a kind of fun and cool trading story from the 80's. So after the usual artistic cover image let's just dive in. Have you ever hear the one about a bunch of nobodies who got handed a million-dollar playbook and told to go make bank? No finance background, no Ivy League connections, just a set of rules and a bankroll. Sounds like a dream, right? Well, let me tell you about the Turtle Traders, one of the wildest, weirdest, and most misunderstood trading experiments of all time.

It started in the early 1980s with a bet, because we are talking about stock brokers in the 80's so of course it did. Richard Dennis, one of the biggest traders of his era, had made a fortune in the futures market. He wasn’t just successful; he was a f*cking legend, turning a $1,600 loan into $200 million. The man could print money trading commodities like it was Monopoly. But despite all his success, he had a philosophical beef with his buddy, William Eckhardt. Eckhardt was convinced that successful trading was a God-given talent—that some people were just born with the instincts to read markets, while others were destined to blow their accounts and cry into their beer. Dennis thought that was bullsh*t. He believed that trading was a skill—a set of rules, discipline, and a bit of math. To prove it, he did something no other trader in his position would even consider: he ran an experiment.

Picture of the legendary Richard Dennis, Look here Liberals this is what peak male performance looks like

The experiment: can you manufacture a trader?

Dennis placed an ad in financial newspapers, looking for people who had zero trading experience but were willing to learn. Thousands applied, but only fourteen got selected. These weren’t Wall Street guys, they were a security guard, an actor, a musician, a professional gambler, and even a goddamn Dungeons & Dragons nerd. These were regular people, with no special access to market knowledge, just like you and me. Dennis called them Turtles, inspired by a turtle farm he visited in Singapore. He figured that just like turtles were raised in controlled environments, traders could be raised the same way. (But in my mind-place he named them after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I don't care what history tells me I live by my own truths.)

If they followed his system to the letter, they’d make money. No thinking. No emotions. Just follow the goddamn rules and let the system work. And I have some good news the good news is I can tell you the secret recipe.

📜 🐢 The Turtle Traders’ rulebook 📜 🐢

1. Follow the Trend

• Buy when prices break out above a certain level.

• Sell (or short) when prices break below a certain level.

• No f*cking predictions. Just ride the wave.

2. Cut Losses Fast

• Every trade had a stop-loss—if the price moved against them, they bailed.

• No "maybe it’ll come back" nonsense. Hope is not a strategy.

3. Let Winners Run

• If a trade was winning, they held it for as long as possible.

• The goal? Catch big, long-term trends and milk them dry.

4. Risk Management is King

• They only risked 1-2% of their total capital per trade.

• No all-in YOLO bullsh*t. No revenge trading.

5. Execute Trades Without Emotion

• The system made the decisions.

• No gut feelings. No second-guessing. No "I think it’s overbought" bullshit.

If you want to dive deeper into the Turtle Traders and the madness of this experiment, here are two books that break it all down:

"The Complete TurtleTrader" by Michael Covel – This one tells the whole story in detail, covering Richard Dennis, the experiment, and how the Turtles made (and lost) millions. It also explains the trading strategy they used and what happened to them after the experiment ended.

"Way of the Turtle" by Curtis Faith – Written by one of the original Turtle Traders, this book gives an inside look at what it was really like to be trained by Dennis and trade with his system. Curtis Faith was one of the most successful Turtles, and he breaks down what worked, what didn’t, and why most of them didn’t survive in the long run.

Both books are worth reading if you want to understand why following a system isn’t enough—and why only the traders who adapt survive.

So now you are set to make billions Good luck.

WHy are you still here? Oh you remembered that I got some bad news as well right? Well but what could it be the strategy sounds easy, right? Follow the blueprint, rake in the money, retire to a private island. Well, here’s where reality came in and slapped them in the face.

The results: millions made… and lost

For a while, it looked like Dennis had cracked the code. Over the next four years, the Turtle Traders made over $100 million. Some of them became absolute killers—turning into hedge fund managers, running their own trading firms, and making millions. The experiment was a success. Dennis had proven that trading could be taught.

But here’s where sh*t got interesting. Not all the Turtles made it. In fact, once Dennis stopped holding their hands, most of them fell apart. See, the system worked beautifully in trending markets. When prices were making big moves—whether up or down—the Turtles printed money. But when the markets got choppy and sideways, things got ugly. They got stopped out again and again, bleeding cash one tiny cut at a time. The system that made them millionaires when trends were strong started eating them alive when trends dried up.

Some of them couldn’t adapt. They kept following the rules, blindly trusting that it would work again, even when the market had changed. And here’s the thing about markets:

THEY DON’T GIVE A F*CK ABOUT YOUR RULES.

What worked last year won’t necessarily work today. A good trader has to be like a good artist. And I know this sounds strange coming from me who usually sh*t on starving artists and tumbler girls but this quote comes from none other than the legendary Picasso himself.

"You have to learn the rules like a student so you can break them as an artist"

- Pabo Picasso -

And a good trader has to act just like that, you can't stick to rules forever you have to make new ones and adapt. So what happened? Some of the Turtles evolved. They learned to tweak the system, recognizing when conditions had shifted. They took the foundation Dennis gave them and built something better. Those guys went on to become hedge fund managers and successful independent traders. They proved that the experiment worked for those willing to adapt.

Real Picture of Richard Dennis guiding his Turtle Traders

The rest? They disappeared. Some quit trading entirely. Others blew up their accounts trying to force a system that had stopped working. The very rules that made them rich also became the reason many of them failed. Dennis had taught them how to trade—but he hadn’t taught them how to survive.

The Final Lesson: Trading Can Be Taught, But Only The Best Survive

Richard Dennis won the bet—he proved that trading isn’t some mystical talent. It’s a skill. A set of rules. A discipline. Anyone can learn it. But he also proved something even more important: most people won’t survive in the long run. The Turtles who thrived weren’t just the ones who memorized the rules. They were the ones who knew when to break them. The market is a goddamn shapeshifter—it never stays the same for long. If you’re stuck playing by a 1983 rulebook in a 2024 market, you’re f*cked. So yeah, you can teach someone how to trade. But once you let go of their hands, only a few will adapt, evolve, and stay in the game. so to end this story I would like to quote another legend

"Anyone can cook... but only the fearless can be great."

- Gusteau -