Turtle Review Correction

After reading my 2fer Turtle Book Review, Michael Covel, the author of The Complete TurtleTrader has inquired about my source regarding his status as a Trader. In the introduction to his interview on wallstrip, Lindsay, the then host of wallstrip (very entertaining, nicely produced video podcast), states that he's not a Turtle (clearly he's human, but not one of the few "Turtle Traders"), nor a Trader. Michael has emailed me to inform me that, while he's not a hedge-fund manager, he does trade his own account. I stand corrected by the source himself and I think it speaks well of his credibility.

I'm as surprised as anyone that the author would read my little review but now I fear I may have stepped into a feud that I don't fully understand. From Michael's copious references, I believe that he put a lot of time and effort into researching his book. It seems the controversy stems from the inability to verify Faith's trading record while a Turtle because the records are missing. If memory serves, Faith's are the only missing records out of the entire Turtle experiment. Without such verifiable proof, the only source for Faith's record is his own version of what happened in Way of the Turtle.

Credibility issues aside, I found both books enjoyable and worth reading and while I'm critical of Covel's technically correct "zero-sum game" claim, his book is an interesting and rather comprehensive journalistic look into the famous experiment and I'll add Covel's Trend Following to my ever expanding list of reading materials.

To Michael Covel: thank you for stopping by and correcting my error and feel free to leave a comment. Also, thank you for your hard work in bringing together so many people's stories to get a more complete picture of what actually happened back when Richard Dennis decided to run this now famous experiment.

Michael Covel's website is: www.michaelcovel.com
Also check out the related sites: www.trendfollowing.com and www.turtletrader.com.