The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America's Top Traders

by Jack D. Schwager

As I understand it, the catalyst for the Turtle training program was a disagreement between you and Richard Dennis as to whether successful trading could be taught. Yes. I took the point of view that it simply couldn’t be taught. I argued that just because we could do it didn’t necessarily mean that we could teach it. I assumed that a trader added something that couldn’t be encapsulated in a mechanical program. I was proven wrong. The Turtle program proved to be an outstanding success. By and large, they learned to trade exceedingly well. The answer to the question of whether trading can be taught has to be an unqualified yes. Do you believe that the systems that Dennis and you presented to the Turtles have degraded because there are now twenty new disciples using the same approaches? With hundreds of millions under management, if they were still trading the same way it’s hard to see how that could fail to be true. However, it’s difficult to say to what extent the Turtles are still trading the same system. I would assume many of them are doing things differently now. If trading can be taught, can it be taught to anyone with reasonable intelligence? Anyone with average intelligence can learn to trade. This is not rocket science. However, it’s much easier to learn what you should do in trading than to do it. Good systems tend to violate normal human tendencies. Of the people who can learn the basics, only a small percentage will be successful traders. If a betting ...