Turtle Traders: How a small group of commodities traders made millions
- Timothy Beggans
- 4 days ago
- 1 min read
In 1983, two legendary CME traders made a bet that would become one of the most iconic experiments in financial history. Richard Dennis believed successful trading could be taught. Bill Eckhardt wasn’t so sure—he believed trading was an innate skill. To settle the debate, they trained 23 individuals from diverse backgrounds over just two weeks using a mechanical trading system.
These students, later known as the Turtles, were taught how to trade commodities with a highly structured rules-based system focused on:
Market selection
Position sizing
Entries, exits, and stops
Managing correlated markets
At the core of their method was the breakout strategy—if a market hit a 20-day high or low, they’d enter a trade. Other systems used included ATR Channels, Bollinger Bands, Donchian Trends, and dual/triple moving averages. The key was consistency.
The system was elegant in its simplicity:
Trade with an edge
Manage risk
Stay consistent
Keep it simple (KISS)
One of the most powerful insights was in position sizing. By using market volatility to adjust trade sizes, the Turtles maintained a constant level of risk exposure. The system expected frequent small losses—but when a trend emerged, it captured the lion’s share of the move.
This style requires not just capital—but serious psychological resilience. Breakouts can be infrequent, and losing streaks are common. Yet those who stuck to the rules found long-term success.
Today, the Turtle experiment remains a powerful lesson in the value of disciplined, rules-based trading.
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