Systems Trader

Trading Legends

Jesse Livermore
Legendary trader and most famous trading character of all time. Livermore, who was operating in the early decades of the last century, is claimed to be the star (under the pseudonym of Larry Livingston) of Edwin Lefevre's memorable book, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator .

Since it was first published in 1923 Reminiscences has continued to be highly regarded as the classic representation of a stock trader. If you are interested in trading, you would never wish to admit to anyone that you had not read this book!

Richard Donchian
Born in 1903, Donchian's distinguished financial career began in the 1930's following personal financial losses in the 1929 Crash. He became well known as one of the pioneers of technical analysis and proponent of trend following systems. A distinguished commodity researcher and financial author, he was responsible for producing a weekly technical newsletter called Commodity Trend Timing which was published between 1960 and 1979 and described his own systems trading ideas.

Donchian's loyal followers included traders of high renown. He invented Donchian Channels , a concept which has given rise to various 'channel breakout systems' which have since emerged.

Ed Seykota
Ed Seykota is still actively trading and is becoming increasingly recognised for his major contribution to system trading. Driven to prove that a mechanical trend following system could beat the markets, in the early 1970s he began to pioneer the application of computers to market analysis and was in the front line of the very first commercial applications. He has remained obsessed with the markets and has achieved unsurpassed success in his career.

Richard Dennis
A trading legend, who started as a pit trader with $400 in 1970. He had turned this modest sum into $200 million before his retirement in the late 1980s. In order to broaden his scope to trade more markets, Dennis transferred from the pit to become a full time desk trader by 1978. He established himself as a trend follower, like almost all great traders. Perhaps the best known story about him is his creation of the 'Turtle Traders' in 1984. These bright young students were recruited and trained by Dennis to prove his belief that trading could be taught. The project was a resounding success.