A review of my books by Howard Getson.

I could not ask for a better review of “Broke: The New American Dream”:

At the same time, it’s a bit weird and disappointing to see a film that begins with a vast study of the systemic problems affecting our economy as a society end up as a well-produced and exceedingly smart infomercial for the individual investor.

If “exceedingly smart infomercial for the individual investor” is a negative…we are in trouble! What this reviewer misses is that the individual is the solution, not macro studies and government stimulus.

A review of the updated edition of ‘Trend Following’ by Felix Sim.

Here is a positive review for my new edition of “Trend Following” that came in the other day:

In conclusion, Trend Following is a good book, well written, easy to read, thoroughly documented, and highly instructive. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I recommend it.

Another review came in this morning from “Emma”. I am not sure which edition she has, but her comments follow:

I have just finished reading your book on Trend Followin [sic]. What a non-event!!! Loads of bollocks about a handful of traders who have made a couple of dollars, and loads of wise sounding quotes from and [sic] endless sea of bores…but absolutely nothing about what trend following is and how it can be used to nake [sic] money. As a flowery escapade into hero worship it’s pure hollywood as and [sic] instructional book on Trend Following it is about as useful as a chocolate Teaopot [sic].

If one reads my book and still doesn’t know what trend following “is”, can I as an author question the intelligence of that reviewer? Is that acceptable and proper?

The Complete TurtleTrader review by Alex Akesson of HedgeCo.net:

TurtleTrader is a record of an exceptional financial adventure. Author and leading news resource for the Turtles, Michael Covel, writes about the entrepreneurial nature of the world of trading, also following the original members from the experimental stage, through to today. In 1983 Richard Dennis started an experiment, training student volunteers with no experience his rules and investment philosophy (which are methodically displayed and explained in this book), he gave them each a million dollars and set them loose on Wall Street. The Turtles followed the rules, sometimes testing and stretching them, which led to adjustments in the program. However, by the end of the experiment, Dennis had made a hundred million dollars, and garnered the title of ‘Legend’ amongst his peers. The book lists the names of the players, the exact figures and time-lines. There is also a chapter listing the Turtles performance while trading for Dennis. Detailed and instructive, the book could come in handy as a guide for any would-be TurtleTraders out there, or simply as an entertaining tale of big ideas and big money.

A recent review of “The Complete TurtleTrader”.

Read.

A review of “The Complete TurtleTrader” from Quint Tatro of Minyanville.com. He asked the rhetorical question: “What books did you read during 1Q?”

Consistently soaking in knowledge is a must in this profession and as you grow your desire for outside literature should increase. This past quarter my reading was hit or miss. I read about five trading/investing books and four out of five were garbage. The following was the only one worth mentioning: “The Complete TurtleTrader”: This was a great read by Michael Covel and delved into the depths of the Turtle strategy which, in a trending market, correlates with my style quite well.

A review in today from Ulli G. Niemann a Registered Investment Advisor in Orange County, CA:

Hello Michael, I just wanted to let you know that I featured one of your books on my blog today. The link is [here]. I’ve enjoyed both of your books, especially since I’ve been a trend follower, or trend tracker as I call it, since the 1980′s. I wanted my 17,000 newsletter readers to share in your findings as I am constantly battling the mindless Buy and Hope syndrome. Thanks for your great work.

Review on Daily Speculations.

More naked self-promotion from me in the form of an excerpt from Michael Nystrom’s review of “The Complete TurtleTrader”:

“Buy and hold is dead! The extreme market volatility over the last decade should make this abundantly clear to even casual market watchers, but it is something that good traders have known all along: You trade securities, you don’t marry them. Buying a stock is not a commitment “until death do you part.” A friend once told me the story of a man he knew who worked at Worldcom during the go-go 90′s and had his entire 401(k) invested in the company stock. He was waiting for his account to hit $2 million, and then he was going to cash out. It was almost there – $1.8m, $1.9m – something like that when the stock began its terminal decline. Instead of selling, he held on until the bitter end, until all was lost. Moral of the story: The market is the utlimate authority. It does not listen to you, nor care about your dreams & desires, so you had best learn to listen to it. Stories like the above are not uncommon – just ask the employees of Bear Stearns. These days buy and hold may as well be called buy and hope, which is definitely not a sound strategy. And while there are a near infinite variety of potentially successful trading strategies (as the book Market Wizards shows), some of the most successful strategies have been mechanical trend following systems. You’ve no doubt heard a bit about Richard Dennis, the trend trading pioneer who discussed his mid-1980′s Turtles experiment in Market Wizards. Now, thanks to Michael Covel, we are lucky enough to have access to the whole story. Continue…

In “The Complete TurtleTrader” one of the two female Turtles elected not to be interviewed. Maybe that interview is closer to reality today as I just noticed that Liz Cheval is paying ad dollars to Google for the term “Michael Covel.” That is a nice endorsement of “The Complete TurtleTrader!”