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Top Trend Traders Bank Millions, Ride The Trend

Famed Stanford University psychologist Leon Festinger once said, “A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.” 
Although trend following has been one of the most successful trading strategies for decades, some critics downplay the massive profits accumulated by trend followers, arguing there are just a few chance winners — “lucky monkeys,” they claim. 
BEAT THE AVERAGES
Not true. Large numbers of trend followers have found a way to outpace market averages. They have done so with hard work and the ability to stick with a trading plan — usually for a very long time. Some argue, “There’s no romance in trend following.” The romance is found in returns. Money is the ultimate aphrodisiac. 
PROFITS COUNT
Think of it this way: Performance data examples from the great trend followers could be the foundation of every college finance class. When you show up on the first day, instead of your teacher handing you a syllabus and telling you to buy certain books, you are handed one piece of paper that simply shows the performance histories of professional trend following traders for the last 50 years. (more…)

A Good Reminder

Trend follower Ken Tropin: In this business you need to have ample payoffs from your winning trades but make sure your losing trades do not generate big losses—so the returns have a fat right tail but not much left tail! Suppose over time you make money on half your trades and lose money on the other half. If the winning trades are double the size of the losing trades, then you have a pretty profitable investment.

Top Trend Traders Bank Millions, Ride The Trend

Famed Stanford University psychologist Leon Festinger once said, “A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.” 
Although trend following has been one of the most successful trading strategies for decades, some critics downplay the massive profits accumulated by trend followers, arguing there are just a few chance winners — “lucky monkeys,” they claim. 
BEAT THE AVERAGES
Not true. Large numbers of trend followers have found a way to outpace market averages. They have done so with hard work and the ability to stick with a trading plan — usually for a very long time. Some argue, “There’s no romance in trend following.” The romance is found in returns. Money is the ultimate aphrodisiac. 
PROFITS COUNT
Think of it this way: Performance data examples from the great trend followers could be the foundation of every college finance class. When you show up on the first day, instead of your teacher handing you a syllabus and telling you to buy certain books, you are handed one piece of paper that simply shows the performance histories of professional trend following traders for the last 50 years.
HUGE WINNERS
The entire semester could be built around that study alone. But first, to judge systematic trend following performance, you need a baseline. The S&P 500 is the barometer for making money in the markets. Comparing to it is wholly appropriate (even though some might carp). Who are some of the top-performing trend following traders over the last 30 years? How much have they made? Consider: 
o Bruce Kovner is worth more than $4.1 billion
o John W. Henry is worth $840 million
o Bill Dunn made $80 million in 2008
o Michael Marcus turned an initial $30,000 into $80 million
o David Harding is now worth more than $690 million
o Ed Seykota turned $5,000 into $15 million over 12 years
o Kenneth Tropin made $120 million in 2008
o Larry Hite has made millions upon millions over 30 years
o Louis Bacon is worth $1.7 billion
o Paul Tudor Jones is worth $3 billion
o Transtrend, a trend-trading fund, has produced hundreds of millions, if not billions, in profit (more…)