Way of the turtle

The First Report Card
During the first month of trading, Rich and Bill dropped by once
a week or every other week. After the first month was over, they
came by and conducted an extensive Q&A session with the group.
In it, Rich asked all the Turtles why they had not bought more heat-
ing oil. Some answered that they had thought the trade was too
risky, that it had gone up too fast; others had thought the move
would not last because there were only a few days left for trading
the contract.
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Way of the Turtle

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I had looked at things differently. At the time, I based my strat-
egy on the belief that Rich would be evaluating us on our ability
to execute the systems we were taught. I also thought he would look
more favorably on trades faithfully executed that incurred losses
than on trades we should have taken but did not, even if that
avoided losses. 
I thought the riskiest thing to do was not take the heating oil
trade. During the Q&A, Rich made it clear to everyone that taking
the trade was the correct move. The scenario could not have been
better for teaching the class a valuable lesson. Slightly more than
one month after training, we had witnessed in actual trading the
importance of not missing trends and had that lesson reinforced in
such a way that none of us would ever forget it.
Rich had told us that after the first month that he would give
those of us who did well a $1 million account to trade. He had indi-
cated before we actually traded that many in the class would not
get the full account and that we would get the opportunity to trade
larger only when we proved ourselves. Several in the class did
receive the $1 million account Rich promised because he had faith
in their ability to execute. Many others continued to trade the lim-
ited accounts we used in January for several more months. 
I was surprised but pleased when Rich gave me a $2 million
account to trade. Evidently he liked the way I had handled the
heating oil move.
The First $2 Million Is the Toughest
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