Our Success Stories, Reviews & Endorsements (Part I)
- Success Stories and Testimonials (Part I)
- Success Stories and Testimonials (Part II)
- Book Endorsements
- Press and Media
- Live Presentations
- Influences
- Wikipedia
- About
There have been few authors that have tackled the
financial markets with a candor that was entertaining while not
alienating themselves from the community they wrote about. A few greats
come to mind: Michael Lewis, Jack Schwager, and Nassim Taleb. I believe
Michael Covel also belongs squarely in this camp for his work to
champion the trend following movement (more).
Tim Pickering
Founder and CIO,
Auspice Capital Advisors
www.auspicecapital.com
Read full review: (PDF).
Tim Pickering
I
have been trading for many years and doing okay but my method was not
systematic enough and too stock focused. I decided that I needed to up
my game and ran across a reference to Trend Following while reading
another book. I decided to contact Mike after reading the book and
decided to work with him one on one. This experience has put me in a new
league and really helped me focus on my weak areas which were risk
management and portfolio selection. I would recommend any trader who is
not where they want to be to start with Mike and the Trend Following
book, website and course
material.
Best Regards,
Steve
Beamer
www.linkedin.com/pub/steve-beamer/2/775/161
Steve Beamer
I've had the pleasure of collaborating with Michael Covel on various
projects over the years and have rarely seen anyone so passionate about
his field. Trend following historian, biographer, novelist,
documentarian, reporter, teacher, curator and advocate, Mike may be best
categorized as an activist for change in our economic paradigm. His
message: financial empowerment is possible if you accept personal
responsibility and take action. Specifically, this means doing away
with 'buy and hold' and ignoring financial market pundits and other
soothsayers. It also involves a strict adherence to trend following
principles, whether trading for yourself or investing with established
CTAs who will trade for you. It is always fascinating to see what Mike
will do next to change the way most people think about investing.
Jeffrey Kopiwoda
Futures Industry Attorney
Jeffrey Kopiwoda
Years ago, famed Chicago bond trader Tom Baldwin put trading in a phrase: "Everybody wants the money, but whose willing to do the work?" I know a few. One of them is Michael Covel. Michael did the yeoman's duty no one else would do: bringing together the principles, practices and track records of trend following. In his now numerous books, courses and programs, he solidly demonstrates trend following is a viable trading and investment strategy; moreover, one that can be learned and mastered. Something many so-called trading and investment strategies have yet to do.
Charles Faulkner
Market Wizard Trading Coach,
Mental Edge Trading Associates
Note: Charles Faulkner is in my film and my new book The Little Book of Trading.
I
am a big fan of Michael Covel. What impresses me the most is his single
minded determination to get his message out regarding his central theme:
trend following works. His books provide plentiful evidence of long term
superior performance by numerous trend following traders. He doesn't
coddle his readers with pep talk--that's not his style. Instead he says
"if you're going to try to make money in what might be the world's
hardest profession, why not take a studied look at how some of the most
successful traders got that way and emulate their behavior?" And talk
about a bargain--he's done the arduous work compiling track records,
picking the minds of sometimes elusive superior traders and then
distilling all the data down into thoroughly useful, readable text. What
tremendous value for a few bucks. And then, because Michael understands
his role as a gifted entrepreneur, he goes the next step by providing
guidance and tools to would be traders utilizing the internet and a
variety of affordable trend following trading courses. I traded my first
futures contract in 1969 and spent my professional career in the futures
industry until my retirement in 2001. Through the years I have been
asked many times for advice about how to attempt to be a successful
trader. My answer now--read and apply Covel.
Jack Zaner
Extra Note from Jack Zaner: Michael since I sold Zaner Group to my son Matt in 2001, I have no website, etc. I believe in what you are doing and merely wish to help you. His site is www.zaner.com.
Michael, I just wanted to say thanks for all you
do. My brother read your book back in 2005 and gave it to me to read. It
changed our trading and, I believe, our lives. Please indulge a little
background. My brother is 8 years my senior. He's in the construction
business and I'm in the insurance business. Pretty different
professionally, but not philosophically. What we had most in common was
a fascination of the financial markets and figuring out a way to profit
from them. He and I have both spent most of our adult lives educating
ourselves on economic and financial issues and continue to do so on a
daily basis. We would categorize ourselves as followers of Austrian
economic thought and free market libertarians. We had been dabbling in
the futures markets for over a decade and could never find an approach
that would work for us. Unfortunately, we followed various gurus on our
way to losing money year after year and depleted several different
trading accounts. We had always focused on systematic approaches to
trading because we both felt that we couldn't trust ourselves to
maintain any trading consistency with soft rules or instinct. Our
problem was that we lacked any understanding of trading systems and all
of their component parts. As a result, we chose to follow the
complicated black box systems designed by others. These systems all
focused on picking tops/bottoms or otherwise predicting market direction
in some way. We didn't realize it at the time, but in retrospect, the
one thing positive we took away from these experiences was the
understanding that our greatest attribute as traders was our discipline.
We took every single trading signal from every guru we ever followed,
come hell or high water. The better educated we became, the more we
realized that NOBODY really knows anything about the direction of
markets. To design or follow a systematic approach to trading based on
the premise that market direction was predictable was a ticket to the
poor house. We'd heard about trend following methods but only in a
disparaging light. We quit trading for 5 years. Then we both read Trend Following. It was the
proverbial "ah ha" moment that we had spent 20 years looking for.
Sometimes the truth is so hard to see because it's right in front of
your face. To make a long story a little shorter, my brother purchased
your course in late 2005 and we starting our little trading company in
Feb 2006 with $100,000 in seed money. We trade a basket of 10 futures
markets using the rules in your course (although with a lower risk %).
We never deviate and we take every signal, subject to the our risk
management rules. We spend no more that 1/2 hour a day on our trading
business. We have tripled our account balance to $300,000 in the
intervening 3.5 years without ever adding any more capital. We have not
had a losing year yet, although I'm sure we will eventually. We made
just under 100% return in 2008, which would have been much greater had
our capital base been larger or if we had been comfortable with a
greater per trade risk %. We had to beg off some trades that were
immensely profitable in fall 2008 due to our position limits and % risk
rules. Unfortunate, sure, but we slept great and still doubled our money
in the greatest financial debacle of our lifetimes. 2008 was only the
beginning. Government interference in markets always makes for great
trend trading opportunities. The size and scope of government today
simply means that trends are only going to be bigger and will occur with
more frequency. We're ready and waiting. We can't thank you enough for
sharing the wisdom of trend following with us. We truly believe that
significant trading wealth is simply a matter of time for us thanks to
the education you provided...mixed in with a big helping of discipline!
Thanks again Michael!
Jeff P., IL USA
Michael I recommend your books every time I speak
at Money Shows. I call your Trend Following book the 'bible of trend
following.' It belongs on every trader's shelf.
Jim Rohrbach
Founder and President, Investment Models, Inc.
www.investment-models.com
Jim Rohrbach
Like all of Michael Covel’s prior
books, Trend Commandments is
well-written. The first time through, I read it in one sitting. However,
it is quite different in style and intent from Trend Following and The Complete TurtleTrader. “Trend Following”
introduced an unfamiliar approach to trading, to many people for the
first time. This book is about more than the tenets and background of
trend following. “Trend Commandments” is an inspirational
piece and exhorts the reader to stop making excuses and go out and do
something about it. This book is also about mindset and motivation. Trend following is not complicated. Mr. Covel points out that you
need answers to only five questions: 1) what market do you buy or sell
at any time? 2) how much of a market do you buy or sell at any time? 3)
when do you buy or sell a market? 4) when do you get out of a losing
position? and 5) when do you get out of a winning position? The
tough part of trend following is in the doing. Mr. Covel discusses the
discipline required and the psychological mindset needed in a very
entertaining and systematic way. In approximately 60 short chapters, he
hits on nearly every trend following topic imaginable—from many
different angles. There’s tremendous throughness here, which may bother
some readers, but it’s mostly because so many parts of the trend
following mindset are interrelated. When you see something and you think
to yourself ”didn’t he just say that a couple of chapters ago?” you’ll
find that it wasn’t quite the same and that he is simply
exploring a closely related topic from another angle. When I say
it is both thorough and entertaining, you still might not have the right
idea. The bibliography ranges from Bill James to Seth Godin to Ludwig von
Mises. There are citations ranging from the movie The Matrix to the
Greek philosopher Epictetus to the Smashing
Pumpkins—and that’s just in the first two chapters. That might give
you a better flavor for how much fun this book is to read. Beyond
just a discussion of risk and reward and the tenets behind trend
following, Covel’s argument is essentially a moral one about initiative,
self-reliance, and accountability—things that are sorely lacking in our
culture today. Without a strong moral core, you’re not going to succeed
in anything, least of all investing. In short, the book covers
the waterfront on trend following and Covel makes his points well. If
you don’t understand trend following as an investment approach after
reading this book, well, maybe the light is never going to come on for
you. In a world awash in fundamental forecasts, self-appointed
gurus, false prophets, efficient marketeers, modern portfolio theorists,
high-volume gong-ringing market commentators, and a public (along with
much of the investment industry) striving for safety in the middle of
the herd, going it alone as a trend follower is certainly the road less
taken. And that may make all the difference.
Mike Moody, CMT
SVP, Senior Portfolio Manager, Dorsey, Wright Money Management
Mike Moody
Hi Michael, I am a trader since over 12 years now.
My trading style was purely day trading, because of my past as a market
maker in forex. Since 5 years I do trade in my portfolio trend following
systems. Actually it became the bigger part of my portfolio. I did read
your books the first time in 2007 (I have at least 10 copies at home of
your books, in English and German) and for me it was like a
confirmation, that what I was doing was right and gave me confidence to
trade more in trend following then in day trading. I also then in 2009
bought your course and finally this year bought your Tradestation code.
I also bought your movie. I am a big fan of you Michael and thank you
very much for your work. You helped me a lot to have more confidence and
trust in it and so far it paid off...Please don't forget that I am
Swiss, so my English vocabulary and grammar is not very well. I don't
have a webpage and don't use Facebook or Linkedin, so I don't need any
publicity on my side. I would love though, to meet people that also do
active and since longer time Trend Following trading to share
experiences, ideas or just to chat. Sometimes I feel very lonely in this
trading world, of course there are many that try to trade out there, but
very few people who do it successfully. Let me know how to proceed. Ciao
and best regards from Switzerland,
Adriano
[Last Name]
If you want to learn an investment strategy that
has created several billionaires and people worth over $50 million,
almost always starting from absolutely nothing, there is one definitive
source: Michael Covel. No other trading strategy has created
such wealth over the past few decades. Learn it.
Timothy Sykes Wall Street Warrior
#1 Trader Out Of 60,000+ On
Covestor
Author of An American Hedge Fund
www.timothysykes.com
Tim Sykes
As a trend follower and investor in other CTAs
since 1994 I truly appreciate the work of Michael Covel. Michael brings
home the points that are so crucial for long term success in trend
following. I have read and reread Michael's books. I have been fortunate
to have had mentors. Let Michael be your mentor. There is no strategy
out there that gives investors transparency & liquidity as does trend
following--a basket of markets in a managed account. Trend following has
allowed me to compound money over time. Trend following is not a get
rich quick process rather a compound your way to
wealth.
Andrew Abraham
www.abrahamcta.com
www.myinvestorsplace.com
Andrew Abraham
Michael Covel was the keynote speaker at an event
I organized in 2007--TradeTech Asia--a major gathering of the region's
equity traders and their brokers. This was an audience that controlled,
collectively, trillions of dollars, and I think all would have agreed
that Covel's presentation was a highlight of the conference. Covel has
access to some of the world's most successful trend followers, and
unlike most other commentators he understands what they do and how they
do it. Through his books, seminars, and public speaking engagements, he
seeks to make that knowledge available to ordinary investors like you
and me.
Toby Donovan
Director,
Investments Sector
Connex International
www.linkedin.com/in/tobydonovan
My name is Todd Miller, Founder and Managing
Principal of Availeth Capital, LLC. We are a managed futures (trend
following) firm located in the northern suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio. The
following is my story of how I have found myself trading for clients. It
all started with me being introduced to Michael Covel in a Barnes &
Noble in northern Cincinnati. No, not an introduction in person, but his
life's passion. Back in 2005, I was working for one of the largest
brokerage/mutual fund companies in the world. It was fairly mundane
work, answering phone calls from clients trying to open brokerage
accounts. This was just a 'hold-over' position in that I knew I didn't
want to be doing 'this', but didn't know what my long-term plans were. I
had always been interested in markets, and wanted to know how to
actually make money trading. Unfortunately, the company I was working
for had no interest (or 'know how') in teaching me how to properly
manage money (ultimately, a good thing for me), and looking back to my
time spent in finance classes in college, my professors had no
real-world solutions either. It was this experience that prompted me to
start reading every trading book I could get my hands on. Good or bad,
this started my trading education. Most of these books I read were
filled with the 'how to read financial statements to determine if a
market is undervalued/overvalued' confusion. But then, there were some
that were helpful in getting me past the notion that I had to study
balance sheets and income statements in order to win; however, were
mostly filled with this B.S. oscillator or that B.S. chart pattern.
There was no meat. The most important thing I learned from a few of
these books was the phrase 'Follow the trend'. Now, I don't say that for
the sake of giving these various authors credit, but to say that it was
the phrase 'Follow the trend' that led me to Michael Covel's first book
Trend Following: How Great Traders Make Millions in Up or Down
Markets. As I was walking in that Barnes & Noble, I spotted something
familiar on the spine of one of the hundreds of books on the shelf, the
words 'Trend Following'. As I pulled it from the shelf and started
leafing through the pages, I came across names such as Bill Dunn, Ed
Seykota, John W. Henry and more who made millions, even billions trading
a Trend Following strategy. It was Covel's book for me that transformed
'Follow the trend' from just a phrase in to 'Trend Following' the
worldview. You see, trend following is not just a trading strategy, but
a way of living one's life. It was my AHA moment. Wanting to make
trading a big part of my life, I graduated on to Michael's Trend
Following course. It was here where I was able to really get down to the
nuts and bolts of building a systematic trend following trading system.
In his course, Michael taught me how to evaluate the odds of any
risk-taking endeavor, that magnitude trumps frequency, and that being
able to take losses are a big part of trading as they are in life. It
taught me to assemble a complete trading system, including knowing when
and where to enter, when and where to exit with a profit and a loss,
portfolio selection, and how much to risk on each trade. After studying
for a couple of months, I moved on to paper trading, then to live
trading. Did I hit the ground running? Not exactly, I stumbled a few
times, and this is where access to Michael paid huge dividends. Whether
it was asking him questions directly or reading his blog, assurance was
right around the corner. As an owner of my own company, watching how
Michael made himself accessible to clients and non-clients alike, always
responding to questions, but without surrendering his belief in who he
is or what he does, taught me a great lesson on how to run my firm. It
has been a little over a year since I started Availeth Capital, and I
know, without a shadow of a doubt, that it would not be in existence if
it wasn't for Michael Covel's work and the passion he puts into it. See,
if he hadn't written 'Trend Following' I would've never been introduced
to the only strategy that does 'Make Millions in Up or Down Markets'.
Thanks Michael!
Todd Miller
Managing
Principal and Portfolio Manager at Availeth Capital, LLC
www.availethcapital.com
Todd Miller
Michael Covel's Trend Following is the first book
to clearly explain the most important new investment discipline since
indexing. Reactive rules-based investing can be active or passive and
the combination significantly enhances portfolio diversification.
Investors that resist trend following should eventually recognize that
index investing is a passive form of trend following. If you appreciate
the benefits of multi-asset class indexing, you should recognize the
importance of adding disciplined trend following to your portfolio, and
vice versa.
David Kreinces, Founder and
Portfolio Manager
ETF Portfolio Management
www.etfpm.com
David Kreinces
Covel's Trend Commandments is a great read for
those who want to understand what trend following is all about- and
benefit from it. Too many investors are lazy and follow "fortune
tellers" instead of real trends. Some traders settle for small gains and
can't stay with trends long enough. Mike helps you get in the heads of
the most successful traders and tries to give you the road map to follow
the trend--where ever it goes.
Jordan
Kimmel
www.T3Live.com
Jordan Kimmel
Read Michael Covel to embark on an irreverent and lively romp through the
hidden landscape of modern day finance. Not only will you leave the
journey enlightened and educated, you will be left with an insatiable
desire to kill your idols. His books and ideas are a must read for
anyone with even a passing interest on how financial history brought us
to the brink of Armageddon.
Dave Goodboy
www.marketsurfer.com
Dave Goodboy
Mike Covel is not just a cheerleader for
trend-following, he is the Head Coach. He understands the game, the
strategy and crucially the psyche of the players. Would-be winners will
ensure that they study Mike's teachings and books before stepping onto
the playing field.
Christopher L. Cruden
Chief Executive Officer
Insch Capital Management
www.inschinvest.com
www.specialfxforwizards.blogspot.com
Christopher L. Cruden
Extra Note from Christopher L. Cruden: By the way, your books ARE required reading here for all our traders, marketers and interns etc. We also give them as presents to our best and biggest clients.
Michael Covel is unashamedly the world's foremost
campaigner of trend following, not only for long-term wealth creation
but as an approach to everyday life. During our early days in 2004,
battling against the forces of gut feel, [while engaging in] long-only equity investing, we
came across Michael's Trend-Following book on the internet. His clear
manner in which he described the investment methodology that had been
around for decades was a revelation for us. We will be forever grateful
to Michael for writing this book that completely vindicated almost 3
years of research into systematic trading. Michael Covel continues to
produce books of high quality with wonderful snippets of information for
those that want to learn. His social media and online presence plays an
important role in educating investors and to a large extent Michael can
take credit for the heightened awareness that systematic Trend Following
is enjoying in this current market environment.
Patrick de Villiers
Principal, Neural Capital Trading
www.neuralcapital.com
I
first came across Michael Covel's work by reading his essential work:
Trend Following. As a technical analyst and trader, the work immediately
struck a chord and started my journey down the path from a technical
trader of stocks, to a systems trader of global futures markets. The end
result is the everTrend Global fund which captures the essence of a
successful trading system: entry signals, risk control, exit signals,
asset class diversification, and global exposure. Mike clearly has a
passion for trading, markets and trend following. What also shines
through strongly is his endorsement of long lost values--independence,
self-reliance and the willingness to tune out the pervasive news-driven,
mind-numbing messages of mass financial media. This may be his greatest
contribution to readers in an age of greater turbulence where the very
foundations of the financial economy and government structures are
fragile and prone to greater failure over the coming decade. It is just
this uncertainty that trend following strategies are designed to profit
from. While traditional asset classes are held hostage to the whims of
the economic cycle, systematic trend following is uniquely designed to
benefit from the only constant in life--change. Mike writes and speaks
with energy and authority and I sincerely hope he continues to spread
the message that trend following and self reliance work for those
willing to strike out on their own and commit to a disciplined, flexible
method. In [his new book] Trend Commandments, Michael Covel shines the
beacon of truth on conventional investment strategies and their reliance
on hope and the narrative fallacy. He succeeds in shattering the Wall
Street fable of 'buy and hope' and offers a better way--a way to harness
the power of global diversification, disciplined risk control and
staying in tune with the underlying trends in markets. Trend following
is a way out, a way to retake control over your investments when
traditional methods have clearly failed. Just as importantly, the work
emphasizes self reliance and the courage to strike out and use the
greatest asset we all have--our minds!
Rob
Robbins, CFA
Portfolio Manager, everTrend Global, LLC
www.evertrendglobal.com
Rob Robbins
Hello Michael, [I have] always been a fan of your books and
I've read almost all of them ([with] exception for the last two that you just
launched and that I'm eager to get sometime). Anyhow, just [want] to
mention how I still can't understand most people in trading. I work as a
broker in my country and we do have a very close approach to our clients
giving them information in order for them to have the best probability of
success. I myself am a trend follower so I try to pass the message to
them even though this goes "against" [most] of what would be best for the
broker (since for the broker what matters is [a]lot of trades for commission
purposes and trend following doesn't generate as many trades). I also
recommend going for bigger time-frames as daily or even weekly... and it
is amazing that even though I give them the right tools, most don't
listen and go on their own. Also it's amazing to see that most people
don't make money in markets no matter what size they are. I've seen
people with 250k blow up in a matter of 2-3 weeks. I really don't get it
how people don't acknowledge that simple works. Something as simple as trend
following. Simple doesn't mean easy because I know it's not, especially
because of our inner psychology in trying to outguess the environment in
this case the markets. This has been my performance for the past 10+
months where I started with my private savings of almost 20k. My
approach has been trend following, buying medium long term strength and
then adding to positions on short term weakness. So far the experience
has been great even though I know this past year (and may I say past 3-4
years) have been great for trendfollowing...I know sometime in the
future (I don't know when) maybe I'll go through tougher periods. But
that's the cost of doing business. And what matters is the long term
growth of our account and I believe trend following is the best approach
for it in terms of long term prospects. Just giving my testimonial. Best
wishes,
Salvador Nobre Veiga
Brazil
Trend Commandments is a book that takes your
grandmother's Depression-era, Dark-Ages-infused investment philosophy,
slaps it in the face a few times, then sits it in the big chair under
the spotlight and asks, "Can we start now?" In the markets, you either
pay attention to what's important, or you get hit by the steamroller.
Trend Commandments tells you what's important--in fact, it puts it right
in front of your face. Trend Following is a book that systematically
peels away the layers off the dummy's mask of fundamental analysis to
reveal the face of the real strategy used by millionaire traders who
have built their personal fortunes for years in both up and down
markets. Note: those traders are millionaires, not gods. Their trading
strategy is learnable, and available to you too. The Complete
TurtleTrader is a fascinating real-life story: even being taught the
same set of trading rules, some members of this specially-selected group
of trader-trainees (aka, the Turtles) went on to massive financial
success while others went on to massive invisibility and failure. It
turns out, there were definite reasons for this, and The Complete
TurtleTrader details what those were. I have read all of Michael Covel's
work--I like it because it makes you think. It challenges your
preconceived notions of what you believe the markets should be, and
offers an alternative perspective (based on his many years of research
and access to top traders) as to what the markets really are, and how to
navigate them. Plus, Michael gives you access--to him. Read his blog and
post a comment (he comments back), send him an email (he answers), call
his firm, engage in an online discussion with a community of other
interested participants. Michael's collection of work--his books,
websites, interviews, documentaries, seminars, and courses--is not some
kind of stodgy, ivory tower collection of inapplicable nonsense. It is a
fluid, engaging, interactive collection of thoughts, ideas, topics and
discussions. Bottom line: Michael's work adds value, and I appreciate
what he contributes.
Robert Kramer
www.facebook.com/rob.c.kramer
Robert Kramer
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