Interview with Strategy Provider - Turtle

How did you come to trading? 
9 years ago, I started to trade on the forex market. The objective was to add an additional income to my salary. It was a tough path, but worth it. Now, for a couple of years, trading is my only income.

If you look back, would you do it again?
Of course, but I know now that my path to success would look differently and would be more effective.
 

Now, people in number of countries must “stay at home” and it’s possible that many of them are starting to trade now or will pay more attention to it. What would you advise to these traders who start now?
Follow the money management rules. In these days, they don’t need to come up with new ideas. There are principles that are already there. Mistakes are done because of not following these rules. However, if they are not sure about their abilities, they should rather connect to the Turtle strategy (or some other strategy).

And should they try forex or anything else? And why?
I started to trade forex because of its liquidity and business hours. But I would leave the decision on each person individually.

How does a standard day look like for you? 
Probably you would like to hear that I wake up and start analyzing, draw S/R zones into the chart and so on, but conversely. Thanks to the fact that Turtle is automatic, I check only open positions, VPS, analyze fundamentals as well as risks and I monitor other things that are needed. On a monthly basis, I do backtests, so the settings follow market sentiment all the time. 

In your opinion, when it’s the right time the change is coming? When does a trader, opening his first demo account, become professional?
It’s individual obviously. I think that the moment is determined rather by his results and will of the others to invest into his strategy. 

When did this change occur in your case, how long did it take?
I am not sure. Investors often tend to lack confidence towards things showing above-standard evaluation. I would say that after the second year when Turtle made over 30% p.a., may clients have become confident. (2016: +33%, 2017: +35%)

Now, it’s already a fifth year for the Turtle strategy and the drawdown has never exceeded 20%, what I personally consider as stable.

Turtle has a very interesting profitability curve from a long-term perspective. What should be the trader like to achieve something like that?
They should have discipline mainly. There are situations when it’s possible to make loads of money in the market, but these bear also high risk. You can make money on that once, twice or multiple times, but it’s not possible to bet on the same horse from a long-term perspective. Therefore, Turtle strategies still follow the same principles and rules bearing fruit from a long-term perspective. Albeit investors do not become rich overnight, but if they check e.g.: the three-year profit, they must be satisfied. Therefore, this strategy bears the name of Turtle as well. 

Please, introduce us to the Turtle strategy a little more. Where can we see its edge?
This strategy is based on money management and proper opening of trades (even 90% of success rate) mainly. If the entry to position is not appropriate, a clearly defined recovery trade follows, utilizing correction in case of larger market moves. Thanks to this system, we were able to achieve stable profits with the absence of big drawdowns. 

Turtle experienced a very good Q1 2020 and especially the month of March. Have you made any adjustments to your strategy with regard to the actual global situation and enormous volatility saw in the markets in March?
Adjustments to setting are done multiple times over the year, on the basis of results of monthly backtests. At the beginning of the year, one more significant change occurred – AUD/USD was included. It was a reaction to 2019, when the system showed lower activity at GBP/USD and EUR/USD. That year was significantly affected by low volatility and Brexit.

What are your plans for the future? What are you working on now?
In July 2018 and in the mid of 2019, you asked me about the same and I’ll provide you the same response: Not to change anything that works! Naturally, I optimize the system constantly for the actual sentiment on the market, that’s also demonstrated by adding of AUDUSD.

What is the future of the forex world in your opinion? (ESMA regulation, volatility, wide global insight of a trader).
I believe that after global quantitative easing, initiated by central banks, big players, led by banks, rule the forex market more than before. In these days, macroeconomic calendar and technical analysis is not enough. It’s necessary to watch market depth and the volume of orders.