Feedback in tonight:

Michael, I just wanted to say thanks for all you do. My brother read your book back in 2005 and gave it to me to read. It changed our trading and, I believe, our lives. Please indulge a little background. My brother is 8 years my senior. He’s in the construction business and I’m in the insurance business. Pretty different professionally, but not philosophically. What we had most in common was a fascination of the financial markets and figuring out a way to profit from them. He and I have both spent most of our adult lives educating ourselves on economic and financial issues and continue to do so on a daily basis. We would categorize ourselves as followers of Austrian economic thought and free market libertarians. We had been dabbling in the futures markets for over a decade and could never find an approach that would work for us.  Unfortunately, we followed various gurus on our way to losing money year after year and depleted several different trading accounts. We had always focused on systematic approaches to trading because we both felt that we couldn’t trust ourselves to maintain any trading consistency with soft rules or instinct. Our problem was that we lacked any understanding of trading systems and all of their component parts. As a result, we chose to follow the complicated black box systems designed by others. These systems all focused on picking tops/bottoms or otherwise predicting market direction in some way. We didn’t realize it at the time, but in retrospect, the one thing positive we took away from these experiences was the understanding that our greatest attribute as traders was our discipline. We took every single trading signal from every guru we ever followed, come hell or high water. The better educated we became, the more we realized that NOBODY really knows anything about the direction of markets. To design or follow a systematic approach to trading based on the premise that market direction was predictable was a ticket to the poor house. We’d heard about trend following methods but only in a disparaging light. We quit trading for 5 years. Then we both read Trend Following. It was the proverbial “ah ha” moment that we had spent 20 years looking for. Sometimes the truth is so hard to see because it’s right in front of your face. To make a long story a little shorter, my brother purchased your course in late 2005 and we starting our little trading company in Feb 2006 with $100,000 in seed money. We trade a basket of 10 futures markets using the rules in your course (although with a lower risk %). We never deviate and we take every signal, subject to the our risk management rules. We spend no more that 1/2 hour a day on our trading business. We have tripled our account balance to $300,000 in the intervening 3.5 years without ever adding any more capital. We have not had a losing year yet, although I’m sure we will eventually. We made just under 100% return in 2008, which would have been much greater had our capital base been larger or if we had been comfortable with a greater per trade risk %. We had to beg off some trades that were immensely profitable in fall 2008 due to our position limits and % risk rules. Unfortunate, sure, but we slept great and still doubled our money in the greatest financial debacle of our lifetimes. 2008 was only the beginning. Government interference in markets always makes for great trend trading opportunities. The size and scope of government today simply means that trends are only going to be bigger and will occur with more frequency. We’re ready and waiting. We can’t thank you enough for sharing the wisdom of trend following with us. We truly believe that significant trading wealth is simply a matter of time for us thanks to the education you provided…mixed in with a big helping of discipline! Thanks again Michael!
xxx, IL USA

More.

A recent review of my new edition of “Trend Following”. An excerpt:

The book itself is one of the best overviews on trend following, hands down – with the 2009 update only making it seem more relevant than ever. Covel goes into much of the history of trend following, and documents many of its largest success stories, including Bill Dunn, Jerry Parker, and Richard Dennis. Covel’s tone is admittedly scathing at points, but justifiably so: he clearly demonstrates the public’s bias towards more conventional investment strategies (like buy and hold), or alternative strategies which promise consistent returns (like LTCM), month after month, before completely going belly up.

Howard Lindzon is definitely a blackberry guy. He is also the creator of Wallstrip and runs a fund of funds. In his best blackberry brevity he offered positive feedback on “The Complete TurtleTrader“:

“Loved it as did my wife. Congrats.”

A nice comment from Bill Miller about my new book The Complete TurtleTrader:

“If you want to beat the market, you have to do something different from what everyone else is doing, and you have to be right. In this fascinating and instructive book, Michael Covel tells how a group of novice traders used a system that generated trades that were both different and right, and which made them a lot of money. If you want to understand the real world of trading, read this book.”
Bill Miller, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer,
Legg Mason Capital Management

More on Miller.

“Michael, your book Trend Following is outstanding. I have 5 speaking dates in early 2006 and I will give all of the attendees some homework…telling them that [they] must read your book. I thought that homework would end when I got out of school, but I know that doing homework never ends…Thank you for the education. In addition to being a Market Timer I am now a Trend Follower. Your book is a must read for every investor. Well done.”
Jim Rohrbach
Founder and President
Investment Models, Inc.

The lead story (and review) appearing in the October 2005 edition of Futures Japan Magazine is about about Trend Following: How Great Traders Make Millions in Up or Down Markets.

If you are not in Japan you will need the correct language support kit installed for your PDF reader.

Feedback received today from a client:

“Dear Michael, this is more of a commentary than a question. I just want to express my recent experiences and place a large exclamation point on being ready to accept losses prior to opening a trading account. My experience has been that due to the nature of any trading that cuts losses short and allows winners to run, a great percentage of the initial trades could very well show up as losses and upset a traders psyche…”

(more…)

Tim Knight, the founder of Prophet.net, offered the following words about my book Trend Following recently:

“I also wanted to suggest a book I finished reading yesterday – Trend Following. You can learn about it on Michael Covel’s site. I have no affiliation with the author, but I think it’s a terrific read. The web site is pretty interesting as well!”

While my book Trend Following rightfully heaps praise on the Turtles who have had great success, it also casts doubts on those Turtles who became con men. However, the ones who have made “it” appreciate the book. Here is some private feedback from one of the few great ones. This trader has nearly a 20-year record of damn good performance:

“I enjoyed Trend Following very much and thought you did an excellent job on it. Best wishes for continued success, Michael.”
XXX
President
XXX Capital Management

Feedback from a reader:

“Michael, I just picked up the new SFO dedicated to trend following. Your article was with out a doubt one of the best articles to appear in SFO in a long, long time…[also] thank you for writing the book [Trend Following]. Since my beginnings in the commodity industry as a retail broker 4 years ago I could never put the words down to explain the way I view the markets. Reading your book solidified my feelings and has been one of the motivating factors in my decision to start a [fund]…I have lost count of how many times I have lent out my copy or recommended it to people who want to make a living in the market. After 4 years it still amazes me how many people discount the idea that price is the only thing that matters.”
Bobby F.

“What Edwards and Magee did for technical analysis and Benjamin Graham did for fundamental analysis, Michael Covel has achieved for the art of following trends. Arguably the definitive text on this style of trading, Trend Following covers all the bases from human behavior to systems trading, while debunking many prevalent misconceptions about what it really takes to make money. Covel gives it to you straight: what works, what doesn’t, and how outsized gains are earned, straight from the mouths of the world’s top traders. If you want the “quick path to easy trading success”, look elsewhere (And good luck to you!). But if you want a real education in what it takes to capture huge market gains over time, read this book.”
Mark M. Rostenko
Editor, The Sovereign Strategist

“At a time when the conventional wisdom is often wrong and many traditional indicators have lost their relevance, it’s good to know there is resource out there that traders can depend on. With its timeless wisdom and valuable insights on making money, Michael Covel’s Trend Following is definitely your friend.”
Michael Panzner
Author of The New Laws of the Stock Market Jungle: An Insider’s Guide to Successful Investing in a Changing World