Interesting tales by Curtis Faith of his time w/ the great Richard Dennis. http://www.turtletradingsoftware.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=307 When the old timers say that psychology and emotional makeup accounts for 90% of trading success, this is what they mean. 23 people (the famous turtles) went through identical training, were given identical trading accounts, look how differently they performed in the program.
if it is a true mechanical system and followed exactly, how can there be any deviation of results ?? best, surfer
Check out the link.. Apparently some were better at following the system than others. I've read similar comments elsewhere. Also, there were a couple of parts to the system. You could use one or the other or both, which would also explain differences. Like the old saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but if you try to push him in you'll get kicked in the head". Or something along those lines.
Just to add a few more comments. As Ed Seykota says "Analysis is the road map, while psychology is the driver". Behind every mechanical system is a trader driver, I have seen traders who after they have even fully automated their mechanical systems and use computers to run them, will turn them off and on based of fear and greed...no matter how mechanical a system is, the human internal struggle remains...
Long-term trend following systems require superb discipline... if I had to choose one reason why I admire the successful turtles, it is for their collective intestinal fortitude to absorb drawdowns that would make mere mortals crap in their pants...
surfer, It's also my understanding that while the system was mechanical, they could use discretion on the particular commodities/futures they traded....that's probably one reason why performance varied...