Dear Mr. Covel, My name is xxx, and I am reading with much interest your book about [the] Turtle Traders. I was Pillsbury’s wheat trader in the pits from 1980 to 1983, and traded size with C&D many times. Dennis, Willis, the O’Briens, etc. You are correct - we (Pillsbury) were huge traders, and we had vast amounts of info at our disposal. Pillsbury was deadly when compared to the Cargills of the world in those days because we all had our own profit center trading accounts in addition to working the enormous commercial hedge balances. Cargill and the others had employees, but Pillsbury had traders. They did not stand a chance. At any rate, I went out on my own [and] remained a Chicago Board of Trade member, and traded wheat until 1999, but I wanted to say that you got the pits in those days right…Good job with the book.
While listening to NPR on my way to school today, I heard that Southwest airlines was the only airline that has not had fuel prices effect their bottom line because they decided to use future contracts to hedge their fuel expense! It’s hard to imagine that only the CEO of Southwest airlines knew about oil futures contracts.
I was at an Indymac location in Orange County, California today. To see the fear in people’s eyes that they might lose their deposits was eye-opening. Next bank?
I have setup an Online Afterword for "The Complete TurtleTrader" that adds even more detail. These are insights, nuggets, and narrative pieces not in my book, but only presented online.
TurtleTrader® is the trend following trading education, news & research leader. Our premier trader training gives traders the chance to make millionss. Additionally, Michael Covel's books are trading must reads.
When I was in college I read an article on Richard Dennis, which made a big impression on me. I thought that Dennis had the greatest job in the world. (Read more)
