Turtle Traders Strategy

Learn the Turtle Traders strategy, a renowned trend-following system based on Richard Dennis's famous experiment. Discover its core principles and how it identi

Published · Updated · Methodology: Mixed

Part of: Trend Following

  • Methodology: Mixed
  • Content type: educational

Source video

Decoded from: Estrategia de trading de las Tortugas Ninja #shorts by StrategyQuant Oficial Español — watch the original

Key timestamps:

  • 0:00 - Introduction to Turtle Traders
  • 0:08 - Mention of two strategy variations

Strategy overview

The Turtle Traders strategy comes from an early-1980s experiment in which a group of recruits with no market background was handed a mechanical trend-following rule set — buy and sell breakouts of recent price extremes, size positions by volatility — to settle an argument about whether trading could be taught. That origin makes this entry unusual in the catalogue: its reputation rests on a claim about teachability and execution discipline rather than on a chart signature, and the rule set itself was eventually put into the public record. For the Turtles, the rules were never the scarce ingredient.

The source here is a Spanish-language Short from StrategyQuant Oficial Español, the Spanish channel of a strategy-generation and backtesting software vendor, published under the colloquial title "Estrategia de trading de las Tortugas Ninja". Two markers cover the whole clip: an introduction to the Turtles, and then, eight seconds in, the note that the system comes in two variations. That fork is the interesting part, because the historical program is documented as having run two entry systems built on breakouts of different lookback lengths — and picking between them is the moment a reproduction quietly turns into a selection. The publisher context also sets the natural verb: on a backtesting channel, a named historical system is something to re-run, not something to re-tell.

This entry carries no extracted rule set, no timeframe and no indicator list, which is what a short-form clip that names a system and gestures at its two branches would be expected to leave behind. It is worth being clear about where the real examination sits for a strategy this public. What the historical record attributes the outcome to — volatility-based position sizing and the discipline to take every signal, including the ones that look wrong — is precisely what a "variation" label does not distinguish. And a rule set this widely published is among the most heavily tested trend-following templates in existence, which means any encouraging backtest of it arrives with a crowded prior and needs to answer for the instruments, costs and liquidity of the market being traded now rather than the futures markets of the 1980s.

Topics

turtle traders strategy · trading strategy · trend following · richard dennis · tradingview strategy · pine script · market trading · beginner trading strategy

Frequently asked questions

What is the Turtle Traders strategy?

It is a mechanical trend-following approach from an early-1980s trading experiment: enter on breakouts of recent price extremes, size positions according to market volatility, and follow the signals systematically rather than selectively. It is best known for the experiment itself — testing whether a rule set could turn beginners into profitable traders — as much as for the rules.

What are the two Turtle strategy variations mentioned in the video?

The Short flags at the eight-second mark that the system comes in two variations without detailing them. Historically, the Turtle program is documented as running two entry systems built on breakouts of different lookback lengths. This page does not carry an extracted rule set for the version presented in the source video.

If the original Turtle rules are public, what is left to evaluate?

Access to the rules was never the hard part. The open questions are conditions and execution: whether breakout trend following holds up on today's instruments, spreads and financing costs, how the volatility-based sizing is implemented, and whether the signal-taking discipline the original results are attributed to survives contact with a live account.

How can I test a Turtle-style breakout system before trading it?

Backtest it on historical data covering several distinct market regimes, then check it on data the rules were never tuned on — and be sceptical of a strategy this widely tested, where good-looking results are easy to find by accident. Strategy Decoder catalogues strategies extracted from video sources so you can evaluate and test them on TradingView.

About this strategy page

This trading strategy was decoded by Strategy Decoder's AI from a public YouTube trading video and turned into a structured, reviewable specification. In the interactive app this page shows the full entry and exit logic, risk management settings, the indicators involved with their parameters, AlgoWizard-compatible logic and a Pine Script export ready for TradingView backtesting — plus an automated backtest verdict when one has been computed for this strategy.

Strategy Decoder catalogs 2,229 decoded strategies. Each one is extracted with confidence scoring, cross-linked to the indicators it uses, and kept up to date as new videos are processed daily. Load this page with JavaScript enabled to use the interactive tools, or start from the strategy explorer to filter by methodology, market and timeframe.

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