"I know of a few millionaires who started trading with inherited wealth. In each case, they lost it all because they didn't feel the pain when they were losing. In those formative first years of trading, they felt they could afford to lose. You're much better off going into the market on a shoestring, feeling that you can't afford to lose. I'd rather bet on somebody starting out with a few thousand dollars than on somebody who came in with millions....This is one of the few industries where you can still engineer a rags-to-riches story. Richard Dennis started out with only hundreds of dollars and ended up making hundreds of millions in less than two decades - that's quite motivating."
William Eckhardt
"I would hate it if the success of Chesapeake was based on my being some great genius. It's the system that wins. Fundamental economics are nice but useless in trading. True fundamentals are always unknown. Our system allows for no intellectual capability."
Jerry Parker
"Can the skills of a successful commodity trader be learned? Or are they innate, some sort of sixth sense a lucky few are born with?" Richard Dennis, the legendary Chicago commodity trader, who turned a grubstake of $400 into $200 million in 18 years, has no doubt. Following an experiment with a group of would-be traders recruited from around the country, he's convinced commodity trading can be learned. Over the past 1 1/2 years, a group of 14 commodity traders he taught earned an average annual compound rate of return of 80%. In contrast, about 70% of all non-professional traders lose money on a yearly basis. "Trading was even more teachable than I imagined," he says. "In a strange sort of way, it was almost humbling." Mr. Dennis says he debated the learning vs. innate ability question with some of his associates for years. While they argued that his skills are "ineffable, mystical, subjective or intuitive," he says his own answer was far simpler. The 40-year-old Mr. Dennis attributes his success to several trading methods he developed, and, perhaps more important, the discipline to follow those methods. To prove his point, Mr. Dennis decided to run a real life experiment. In late 1983 and again in 1984, he placed ads in the Wall Street Journal, Barron's and the New York Times seeking people who wanted to be trained as traders. The job required that they move to Chicago, where they would receive a small salary and a percentage of any profits while Mr. Dennis taught them his methods."
Wall Street Journal, 9/89
