“How much of the total account should I deploy at any one time…”

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Hi Mike,

I’ve read 2 of your books (“Complete TurtleTrader” and “Trend Following 5th ed”) and they’ve converted me from the Daytrading Dark Side. Your books are comprehensive and I started implementing turtle rules.

But I still have one question: I know each trade should be 1% of capital, but how much of the total account should I deploy at any one time? For example, if I have a $10,000 account, I know that no one trade should risk more than $100. But I’m also supposed to trade every signal. If I’m looking at commodities (ETFs), Forex, and stocks, I quickly get at least 50 trading signals for either System 1 or System 2. At 1%, that’s 50% of my capital deployed.

Are there any turtle rules for how much capital I should deploy, or perhaps the better question, what percent of my capital should I always hold back so that I survive if all investments tank?

Thanks for all the work you’ve put into this. I would never have learned about it if not for your books.

Jack M.

I do help A to Z clients understand trend following and trend following position sizing. The short answer is you use a structure of units, whereby each unit will be a %, ie. 1-2%, etc. Then you have a max number of units to deploy at any one time. That’s to start.

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