Was intelligence one of the key items? It was one of the traits, but it wasn't the essential item. To find the things that we were looking for, we could
choose from intelligent or extremely intelligent people. We picked the ones with extreme intelligence just because
they were available.
Didn't you have any reluctance about giving away trade secrets? Sure, but I don't think trading strategies are as vulnerable to not working if people know about them, as most
traders believe. If what you are doing is right, it will work even if people have a general idea about it. I always say
that you could publish trading rules in the newspaper and no one would follow them. The key is consistency and
discipline. Almost anybody can make up a list of rules that are 80 percent as good as what we taught our people.
What they couldn't do is give them the confidence to stick to those rales even when things are going bad.
How long was the training process? Shockingly short. In the first year, it took two weeks. Then we had them trade for a month and keep a log
indicating why they made their trades. We wanted to see if they were consistent in doing what they had been taught.
We really got good at it in the second year—the course took just one week.
How many trainees were there? Twenty-three in total.
What were the results? We dropped three people who didn't do well. The other twenty, however, have averaged about 100 percent
profit per year.
When you train people, you tell them your basic approach to the markets. Isn't there a risk of creating twenty clones of Richard Dennis? Wouldn't their trading results be highly correlated with what you are doing? There was a huge spread. One of the things that we repeatedly told the class was: "We are going to teach you
what we think works, but you are expected to add your own personal flair, feeling, or judgment."
