Francesc Riverola,
Hi everyone
As a favor to Mike Baghdady, speaker at the latest ITC, here you have a note from his Turtle Trader Project.
Thanks
Francesc
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Mike Baghdady’s Turtle Trader Project: The Real Apprentice
A veteran trader is inviting 10 apprentices to trade the markets alongside him for a year, using his own capital to fund their trades…
Mike Baghdady wants 10 newcomers, who can keep a cool head in the face of big market swings, to trade for him for 12 months from January, keeping a percentage of the profits they make.
The programme – estimated to cost a cool £100k per head - rivals an experiment run by legendary Chicago trader Richard Dennis in the early 80s, who set out to prove that successful trading can be taught to anyone who can follow a set of rules.
Dennis placed an advertisement in the New York Times stating ‘prior experience is not necessary’ and took on apprentices including actors, security guards and blackjack players. After four years, Dennis was up an astonishing $175m on his initial investment.
His most successful ‘turtle’ trader was Curtis Faith, 19, who made a personal $31m profit on his initial $1m stake.
“The secret of their success was their ability to keep calm and follow the rules given to them by an experienced trader,” Baghdady explains.
A stocks, commodities and currency trader of 34 years, Baghdady has developed 21 trading rules – and the only system of its kind in the world – to be based purely on price behaviour (exploiting the trends and human emotions). He won last year’s live trading competition in Frankfurt and financial institutions including Deutsche Bank and ING use his Training Traders software to trade in any market, in any conditions.
“Because the Price Behaviour system is completely rule-based and captured in proprietary software, it can be used as the foundation to accelerate the training of novice traders,” Baghdady explains.
“Our unique methodology creates advantages to the trader. We are prepared to fund this claim to make history with our trading model,” he adds.
- Applicants are advised that there is no one profile or personality type that makes for a potentially successful trader, but that the ability to master the trading rules and trade without emotion are important qualities.
- They are expected to make no personal investment, take no losses and pay no commissions. They are also expected to start early, the same as professional traders, on the trading floor (Central House, 25 Camperdown Street, London. E1 8DZ) at around 07.30 each morning, Monday to Friday, until late afternoon. All Apprentices will study the three courses Training Traders offers, including the Foundation in Technical Trading, Day Trading and Long Term Trading. They will also be taught how to use the Training Traders software to support the rules and methods it teaches. Following this initial training, they will then move onto the live trading floor with Mike Baghdady and Ben Tuckey.
- A new website has been set-up to explain the Turtle Trader philosophy and the Apprentice Programme here: http://newturtletraders.com
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Give me a break …
If he wanted to prove that anyone can trade why would you need to interview and make a selection? Just pick 10 people off the street.
This sounds to me like a lead collection campaign (very innovative I must say) to the trading school which may be excellent place to learn to trade.
– Asaf.
Good luck to the 10 who get picked. I think this is a fantastic opportunity and with the wealth of experience Mike has to offer I would say everybody should send a cv in and see what happens!
I have to agree with Asaf, the facts are that Baghdady has made a number of fake claims in his advertising. For instanc he claimed to be world trading champion 2009, however there is no such event. He took part in a 3 hour evening session at the Frankfurt World of Trading event in 2009. It wasnt a world championship and in any case he didnt even win a prize. He also put out a TV advert where he had a guy saying he was a hedge fund manager, however the guy (Ben Tuckey) was just a company employee and the hedge fund he mentioned didnt even exist.
On top of that he has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York. He submitted an affadavit to the court which showed he had zero income from trading. His only income was from his training company.
These guys make their money from selling courses to gullible newbies. You can be sure that the latest project is just a massive (and successful) lead collection campaign. Imagine how many of the ‘unsuccessful’ candidates are going to be offered the chance to join the program for a fee?
I should have added that despite receiving thousands of applications he extended the deadline. Why would that be?
P Jones: Filing chapter 11 in the U.S. doesn’t have to mean he hasn’t made any profits from trading. Chapter 11 is often a strategy used in legal disputes - which are very common in the U.S. If you are on the way to lose a case, you’d be wise to go chapter 11. Its necessary to understand that lawsuits in the U.S. are often a monetary strategy or a retaliation strategy, and doesn’t necessary mean that anyone has done any legal wrongs. It can also be very difficult to prove your case in a legal dispute. Being sued or suing is so common its a serious problem on the U.S. business landscape and as a foreign company owner I would probably never want to own a business in the U.S..
If chapter 11 is filed for a company, it is only the company income that need to be displayed related to expenses for that company and not other income.
If I recall Baghdady had a trading dispute with someone over millions of dollars so the chapter 11 would make sense if he was unable to prove his argument to the court.
Bill
My point is that in a sworn affadavit he listed his income from his training company and stated that this was his only income, he did not list any income from trading.
The great Jesse Livermore was made bankrupt numerous times and he came back each time paying off all his debt - a hundred cents on the dollar plus interest.
On the other hand, those who can do, those who can’t teach. This is especially true in the prop trading / arcade business model.
As a trader, you make the judgement call and you reap the rewards if you are right.
Personally, I would do more due diligence on this guy before handing any money over.
I went through the process, sent in my details, came in for the assessment and a few weeks later got rejected. I’ve put all my thoughts of each of the processes on my blog http://www.makemesomemoney.co.uk if you’re interested!