Our weekly newsletter is out, and this time we’re taking a look at one of the legends of the managed futures world. Every endeavor has its legends, its icons, and its myths. The Joe Namath’s, Paul Revere’s, and Amelia Earhart’s. The people whose identities become symbols to represent the very epitome of what they did. For futures traders, and especially trend-followers, one of those symbols is undoubtedly Richard Dennis and his Turtle Traders. Their story has all of the trappings of a classic: one man, a rag-tag group of students, and a bet – that he could teach a disparate group of people to be successful traders.

We have been thinking about the Turtles quite a bit lately due to the sudden passing of one of their most successful and charismatic members. We were certainly not the only ones saddened to learn of the passing of Liz Cheval – and the outpouring of condolences from across the industry demonstrated the impact that she had on the people who knew her. Ms. Cheval was the head of trading firm EMC Capital, and seeing the impact that she had made us wonder – where are the Turtles now? And what have they done with the knowledge and skills imparted to them in that famous experiment?

The answer is that many of them have continued to apply that knowledge – with the members of what we’ll call an expanded Turtle List in the managed futures business controlling close to $2.3 Billion in assets.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, we need to revisit the story of the Turtles for those who may not have heard it before. Then take a look at what the members of Dennis’ famed cohort are up to today to find out just how much of an impact that simple bet is having 30 years later. Read on to see what we found.