Michael Covel - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Michael Covel is an author and film director. In 1996, he co-founded the website TurtleTrader.com, an online resource for trend following

Trend following

Trend following is an investment strategy that tries to take advantage of long-term moves that seem to play out in various markets. The strategy aims to work on the market trend mechanism and take benefit from both sides of the market, enjoying the profits from the ups and downs of the stock or...

writing, news, and information. Covel’s first book was 'Trend Following: How Great Traders Make Millions in Up or Down Markets' (FT Press, April 2004, Nov. 2005, Mar. 2007, Mar. 2009) featuring traders David Harding (mathematician)

David Harding (mathematician)

David Winton Harding is a British investment manager and philanthropist who is the founder, chairman and head of research of Winton Capital Management. He is a leading manager of investment funds, having previously co-founded Man AHL . Harding favours quantitative investment strategies, using...

, John W. Henry

John W. Henry

John William Henry II is a futures and foreign exchange trading advisor who founded John W. Henry & Company . He is the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool F.C., and co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing. In March 2006, Boston Magazine estimated his net worth at $1.1 billion, but noted...

, Ed Seykota

Ed Seykota

Edward Arthur Seykota is a commodities trader, who earned S.B. degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT and Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management, both in 1969. In 1970 he pioneered Systems trading by using early punched card computers to test ideas on trading the markets...

, Richard Donchian

Richard Donchian

Richard Davoud Donchian was an Armenian-American commodities and futures trader, and pioneer in the field of managed futures....

, Jesse Lauriston Livermore

Jesse Lauriston Livermore

Jesse Lauriston Livermore , also known as the Boy Plunger and "Great Bear of Wall Street", was an early 20th century stock trader...

and Larry Hite

Larry Hite

Lawrence D. Hite is a hedge fund manager, who, along with Ed Seykota, is one of the forefathers of system trading. He has been profiled and recognized as one of the best in the industry in numerous major international publications, and, in 1986, BusinessWeek awarded Hite its annual Best of Award....

among others. His second book, 'The Complete TurtleTrader: The Legend, the Lessons, the Results' (Collins, Oct. 2007, Feb. 2009) chronicles a trading experiment by legendary trader Richard Dennis

Richard Dennis

Richard J. Dennis, a commodities speculator once known as the "Prince of the Pit," was born in Chicago, in January, 1949. In the early 1970s, he borrowed $1,600 and reportedly made $200 million in about ten years. When a futures trading fund under his management incurred significant losses in the...

. His third book is 'Trend Commandments: Trading for Exceptional Returns' (FT Press, June 24, 2011). His fourth book is 'The Little Book of Trading: Trend Following Strategy for Big Winnings' (Wiley, August 9, 2011).

Biography

Michael Wesley Covel was born September 1, 1968 in Quantico, Virginia.
Covel graduated with a B.A. from George Mason University

George Mason University

George Mason University is a public university based in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the city of Fairfax. Additional campuses are located nearby in Arlington County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County...

(Fairfax, Virginia). He received a M.B.A. at Florida State University

Florida State University

The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...

(Tallahassee, Florida).

Career

'The Complete TurtleTrader: The Legend, the Lessons, the Results' (Collins, October 2007) examines nurture versus nature by reviewing an experiment conducted by Richard Dennis

Richard Dennis

and then partner William Eckhardt

William Eckhardt (trader)

William Eckhardt is a commodities and futures trader and fund manager. He began trading in 1974 after four years of doctoral research at the University of Chicago in mathematical logic.- Education :...

in 1983. Covel writes about the Turtles’ who were a group of Wall Street

Wall Street

Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

novices turned into top traders, based on the philosophy and rules set forth by Richard Dennis. The ‘Turtles’ were taught to think of themselves “first as scientists and second as traders.”

Trend Following

Covel’s first book, “'Trend Following: How Great Traders Make Millions in Up or Down Markets' breaks down the concepts and practices of trend following. He also reinforces the most vital rule in trading; to follow a system based on following market price

Market price

In economics, market price is the economic price for which a good or service is offered in the marketplace. It is of interest mainly in the study of microeconomics...

trends.

Broke: The New American Dream

Covel directed the documentary film “Broke: The New American Dream”
touches on many of today’s major economic themes.’ The film focuses on the harsh reality of the 2008 housing collapse, current stock-market volatility, and recent growing economic uncertainty.

Critical Responses

Critics of Covel point out that his studies do not address survivorship bias

Survivorship bias

Survivorship bias is the logical error of concentrating on the people or things that "survived" some process and inadvertently overlooking those that didn't because of their lack of visibility. This can lead to false conclusions in several different ways...

. Covel's response: "Is there anything to learn from the numerous winning trend following traders, or do you view them as just lucky monkeys whose darts happened to hit all bull's-eyes for decades? This is the fork in the road for you: luck or skill."

Published works

Covel, Michael (2004). Trend Following: How Great Traders Make Millions in Up or Down Markets (FT Press, April 23,(2004). ISBN 0131446037 (English) ISBN 978-0131446038 (English)
Covel, Michael (2005). Trend Following: How Great Traders Make Millions in Up or Down Markets (FT Press, May 2004 and Nov. 2005 Expanded Edition). ISBN 0131345508 (English) ISBN 978-0131345508 (English)
Covel, Michael (2007). Trend Following: How Great Traders Make Millions in Up or Down Markets, New Expanded Edition (FT Press; Expanded edition, March 19, 2007). ISBN 0136137180 (English) ISBN 978-0136137184 (English)
Covel, Michael (2009). Trend Following (Updated Edition): Learn to Make Millions in Up or Down Markets (FT Press; 1 Updated edition, February 25, 2009). ISBN 013702018X (English) ISBN 978-0137020188 (English)
Covel, Michael (2007). Trend Following: How Great Traders Make Millions in Up or Down Markets (Kindle Edition). FT Press; Expanded edition, March 23, 2007. ASIN: B000P28WTY (English)
Covel, Michael (2009). Trend Following (Updated Edition): Learn to Make Millions in Up or Down Markets (Kindle Edition). FT Press; 1 Updated edition, March 3, 2009. ASIN: B001UID8LY (English)
Covel, Michael (2007). The Complete TurtleTrader: The Legend, the Lessons, the Results (Collins Business, October 9, 2007) ISBN 0061241709 (English) ISBN 978-0061241703 (English)
Covel, Michael (2009). The Complete TurtleTrader: How 23 Novice Investors Became Overnight Millionaires (Collins Business, February 24, 2009) ISBN 0061241717 (English) ISBN 978-0061241710 (English)
Covel, Michael (2011). Trend Commandments: Trading for Exceptional Returns (FT Press, June 24, 2011) ISBN 0132695243 (English) ISBN 978-0132695244 (English)
Covel, Michael (2011). The Little Book of Trading: Trend Following Strategy for Big Winnings (Wiley, August 9, 2011) ISBN 1118063503 (English) ISBN 978-1118063507 (English)

Foreign Language Publications

Covel, Michael (2008). The Complete TurtleTrader (Chinese-Complex Version), Sunbright Publishing Co., February 18, 2008. ISBN 9861542035
Covel, Michael (2007). Turtle-Trading (German Version), Börsenmedien, December 2007. ISBN 3938350482 ISBN 978-3938350485
Covel, Michael (2008). The Complete TurtleTrader (Korean Version), Wisdom House Publishing Co., May 2008. ISBN 978-89-6086-102-2
Covel, Michael (2009). The Complete TurtleTrader (Japanese Version), Nikkei Business Publications, January 28, 2009. ISBN 978-4-8222-4630-3
Covel, Michael (2006). Trend Following (Chinese-Simplified Version), Financial Times Prentice Hall, December 1, 2006. ISBN 7807284447
Covel, Michael (2006). Trend Following (Arabic Version), November 1, 2006. ISBN 9953297932
Covel, Michael (2006). Le Trading Directionnel (French Version), Valor, March 30, 2006. ISBN 2909356507 ISBN 978-2909356501
Covel, Michael (2006). Trend Following. Wie erfolgreiche Trader in Hausse und Baisse Millionen machen (German Version), Börsenmedien, February 28, 2006. ISBN 3938350083 ISBN 978-3938350089
Covel, Michael (2005). Trend Following (Korean Version), TheNan Publishing Co., November 25, 2005. ISBN 8984053244
Covel, Michael (2005). Trend Following (Chinese-Complex Version), Pearson Education Taiwan, October 1, 2005. ISBN 9861542035
Covel, Michael (2005). Trend Following (Japanese Version), Pan Rolling, January 27, 2005. ISBN 4775970461 ISBN 978-4775970461

Foreign Language Published Articles

Covel, Michael (2005). Yukan Fuji Newspaper, Japan (Japanese).