Craig Soderquist was one of the original Turtles trained by Richard Dennis. He is no longer living, but his place in the Turtle story is secure on two counts: his own documented performance record and the second-generation traders he produced. The 1989 Wall Street Journal ranking placed Soderquist at an 82.4 percent average annual return across the 1985 to 1988 period, putting him seventh among the fourteen Turtles tracked in that survey and solidly in the top half of one of the most successful groups of systematic traders ever assembled.
That number places him above Howard Seidler (64.2%) and Tom Shanks (63.7%), and behind Paul Rabar (89.1%) and Philip Lu (88.9%). The range across the cohort is instructive: all fourteen Turtles in the ranking beat the Barclay CTA Index and the S&P 500 by substantial margins over the same period, but individual results varied widely. Soderquist’s position in the upper tier reflects consistent execution of the trend following principles William Eckhardt and Dennis built into the program.
Soderquist Inc. and the Transmission of Knowledge
After the Turtle program ended, Soderquist ran his own trading operation under the name Soderquist Inc. Like several of his cohort who built quiet, disciplined businesses without seeking public profile, he kept the operation focused on the core systematic methodology rather than building a large institutional presence. The Turtle rules were complete enough that a single manager with sufficient discipline could run them effectively across diversified global futures markets without the overhead that larger organizations require.
What distinguishes Soderquist’s legacy most clearly is what he did with his knowledge beyond trading it himself. He trained Ken Jakubzak, who went on to found KMJ Capital Management and carry the Turtle methodology into a third decade of systematic trading. He also assisted in the development of Mark J. Walsh, another second-generation practitioner. The fact that Soderquist produced multiple second-generation traders from his own operation speaks to something Dennis believed from the beginning: trading knowledge can be taught, and those who absorb it deeply enough can teach it in turn.
This chain of transmission is one of the most important and least discussed aspects of the Turtle legacy. The original experiment produced roughly two dozen first-generation traders. Those traders, the ones who understood the underlying principles rather than just memorizing the rules, went on to produce second-generation practitioners. Paul Rabar produced Jeff Izenman. Soderquist produced Jakubzak and contributed to Walsh’s development. Jerry Parker‘s Chesapeake Capital mentored Salem Abraham. The methodology propagated not through textbooks but through the same apprenticeship model Dennis had used originally, one practitioner teaching another, with real money and real market feedback as the curriculum.
What the 82.4% Means in Context
The WSJ rankings noted that returns overstated performance because traders paid small or no commissions and received no interest credit on trading capital during the early period. Even with that caveat, the underlying results are striking. The Turtle system was producing these returns not through leverage or concentration but through disciplined diversification across commodity, currency, and financial futures markets, cutting losses quickly and letting winning trends develop over months. Soderquist’s 82.4 percent places him in the company of the best systematic trend followers of his era.
The Turtle experiment was designed to answer a single question: could trading be taught? Soderquist’s record answers yes. His second-generation students answer it a second time, suggesting the knowledge was transmissible not just from Dennis to his students but from those students to the next cohort. That propagation is the deepest validation of Dennis’s original thesis.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Craig Soderquist?
Craig Soderquist was one of the original Turtle traders trained by Richard Dennis. He ran Soderquist Inc. as an independent commodity trading advisor after the program ended and posted an 82.4 percent average annual return in the 1989 Wall Street Journal ranking of Turtle traders. He trained second-generation Turtle Ken Jakubzak and assisted in the development of Mark J. Walsh. He is deceased.
Who is Ken Jakubzak?
Ken Jakubzak is a second-generation Turtle who trained under Craig Soderquist while working at Soderquist Inc. He went on to found KMJ Capital Management, continuing the systematic trend following methodology into subsequent decades.
How did Soderquist rank among the original Turtles?
In the 1989 Wall Street Journal ranking of fourteen Turtle traders, Soderquist placed seventh with an 82.4 percent average annual return across 1985 to 1988. He ranked above Howard Seidler and Tom Shanks, and below Paul Rabar and Philip Lu. The entire cohort significantly outperformed both the Barclay CTA Index and the S&P 500 over the same period.
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