The Turtles were futures traders, at the time more popularly called commodities traders. We traded futures contracts on the most popular U.S. commodities exchanges.
Liquidity
The primary criterion used to determine the futures that could be traded by the Turtles was the liquidity of the underlying markets.
Since we were trading millions of dollars, we could not trade markets that only traded a few hundred contracts per day because that would mean that the orders we generated would move the market so much that it would be too difficult to enter and exit positions without taking large losses. The Turtles traded only the most liquid markets.
In general, the Turtles traded all liquid U.S. markets except the grains and the meats. Since Richard Dennis was already trading the full position limits for his own account, he could not permit us to trade grains for him without exceeding the exchange’s position limits.
We did not trade the meats because of a corruption problem with the floor traders in the meat pits. Some years after the Turtles disbanded, the FBI conducted a major sting operation in the Chicago meat pits and indicted many traders for price manipulation and other forms of corruption.
The following is a list of the futures markets traded by the Turtles:
Chicago Board of Trade
- 30 Year U.S. Treasury Bond
- 10 Year U.S. Treasury Note
New York Coffee Cocoa and Sugar Exchange
- Coffee
- Cocoa
- Sugar
- Cotton
Chicago Mercantile Exchange
- Swiss Franc
- Deutschmark
- British Pound
- French Franc
- Japanese Yen
- Canadian Dollar
- S&P 500 Stock Index
- Eurodollar
- 90 Day U.S. Treasury Bill
Comex
- Gold
- Silver
- Copper
New York Mercantile Exchange
- Crude Oil
- Heating Oil
- Unleaded Gas
The Turtles were given the discretion of not trading any of the commodities on the list. However, if a trader chose not to trade a particular market, then he was not to trade that market at all. We were not supposed to trade markets inconsistently.
By OrinalTurtles.org
Original Turtle Trading Rules: Foreword
Original Turtle Trading Rules: Introduction
Original Turtle Trading Rules: Chapter 1: A Complete Trading System
Original Turtle Trading Rules: Chapter 2: Markets: What the Turtles Traded
Original Turtle Trading Rules: Chapter 3: Position Sizing
Original Turtle Trading Rules: Chapter 4: Entries
Original Turtle Trading Rules: Chapter 5: Stops
Original Turtle Trading Rules: Chapter 6: Exits
Original Turtle Trading Rules: Chapter 7: Tactics
Original Turtle Trading Rules: Chapter 8: Further Study
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