Turtle Trading Strategy: Richard Dennis Rules, Statistics, and Backtests – Is It Still Effective?

Turtle trading strategies are a trading approach named after Richard Dennis’ popular trading experiment in 1983. The experiment was to determine whether trading was an inborn skill or could be learned. The turtle trading experiment was a huge success, and the strategy employed by those traders was very successful all through the 1980s. But does it still work today? And what exactly are the turtle trading rules?

Yes, the turtle trading strategy still works today. It is a trend-following strategy, so it works in markets with clear trends. While the original strategy, which is based on identifying breakouts, still works reasonably well, traders have modified the turtle trading rules by using technical indicators for trend identification. The technique may not be as profitable as in the 1980s, but traders can still use it to earn good returns, as indicated by the Barclay CTA index and successful hedge funds, like Swedish Lynx, for example.