Richard Dennis

"People would not follow the best trading rules
even if they were published in the newspaper."

Before systems trading was firmly established, Richard Dennis explained that it was necessary to have rules and follow them in order to have any chance of success trading commodities.

By then, he had established himself as one of the most successful traders of all time and had also proved (with the famous Turtles experiment) that trading could be taught.

He had clear views on human attitudes towards trading and one of these was that people were bad at any tasks requiring discipline.(Like trading commodities!)

He was wise enough to realize that the route to success was more to do with following your system methodically than the particular set of rules you were using.

He knew that even if he published his best rules for trading commodities in the newspaper, people would not follow them because they would not have the discipline to do so.

They would also find ways to break their rules when a good idea occurred to them or when something happened that made them nervous or caused them to doubt if they had the right rules after all.

Over time, systems traders have learned the lessons that Richard Dennis was trying to explain. Many years of experience in developing successful methods and massive advances in technology have since enabled professional traders to learn the best ways to trade commodities.

That is why nearly all the profits made in the commodities markets are taken by these professionals.

By delegating their routine trading to computers - without subsequent
interference, today's systems traders take for granted all the things that Richard Dennis taught so successfully to the Turtle traders. They also avoid the problems that still befall less experienced traders.

If you see any trading rules published in the newspaper or anywhere else for that matter, make sure you evaluate them using the same methods as those employed by the successful traders before you adopt them!

 

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