This is a true story about how a ragtag group of Average Joes made millions trading futures contracts…

And I promise if you stick with me, then there’s a very good chance you just might rethink everything you ever thought about what it takes to be a successful investor.

#-ad_banner-#I actually came across this interesting story awhile back and it was said to have been inspired by the 1983 Eddie Murphy movie “Trading Places.”

It all started with a simple bet between two partners: Could the average person with absolutely zero Wall Street experience be taught to successfully trade the markets?

On the one hand you had Richard Dennis — a self-taught commodities trader who reportedly made his first million by the age of 25. He believed he could teach someone his trading system so that the student would be just as successful as the teacher.

Then there was his partner, William Eckhardt, who thought differently. He believed people were born with an innate skill or intelligence that made them better investors than the average person.

To settle the bet, Dennis and his partner rounded up an eclectic group of individuals (a kitchen worker, prison counselor, phone clerk and bartender). Dennis gave them a two-week crash course that taught them the ins-and-outs of his proprietary trading techniques. Then he gave this group some of his personal money and set them loose on the markets.

What happened next would become known as the story of the “turtle traders.”

Over the next five years these “turtles” were able to amass a $175 million fortune for Dennis and Eckhardt. Many of the turtles still trade today, with the most successful example probably being Jerry Parker, founder of Chesapeake Capital.

So how did they do it? It’s actually quite simple.

Dennis didn’t believe in following the news, stock tips or gleaning through financial statements. He told his pupils, “You don’t get any profit from fundamental analysis. You get profit from buying and selling. So why stick with the appearance when you can go right to the reality of price?”

Dennis taught his students to cut their losses short, avoid emotional investing and above all else look at price movement. In other words, Dennis taught the turtles the basics of trend following. He believed that as long as his students remained disciplined and stuck to the rules they would make money. And they did.

Perhaps more important, this social experiment revealed two major facts: 1) anyone can make money in the markets, and 2) provided with the right system and set of rules — and above all, sticking to those rules — you can become a very successful investor.

Readers of my premium trading advisory, Maximum Profit are very familiar with these rules. as I constantly preach similar ones in each and every issue of my newsletter.

Like Dennis, I believe that what works best are rules. Leaving too many things to judgment leaves a lot of room for error. That’s why many of the rules that Dennis taught his turtles are utilized in my Maximum Profit system. Following buy and sell signals, cutting losses short, not letting emotions cloud our investing decisions and, of course, following price action, or momentum.

Now here’s the moral of this little story… I tell you all this because I don’t think it takes some kind of innate genius to successfully trade the markets. With the proper framework and discipline, anyone can do it. If that sounds shocking to you, it’s because that’s not what we’re told by the mainstream financial media. According to them, it’s only savvy uber-investors with inside information or high-powered computer algorithms that rack up year after year of market-beating gains.

But in my experience, it’s simply not true.

By using a simple set of rules and sticking to them, my Maximum Profit readers and I have been able to capture larger gains than the average investor — and in a fraction of the time. I’m talking about gains of 80% in nine months… 87% in six months… even 149% in five months. These are just a few of the winners my system has already generated in the past couple of years alone.

This demonstrates just how powerful a simple set of rules and a powerful system like the Maximum Profit system can be. Sure, we may go through some rough patches from time to time — if anyone says otherwise they’d be lying — but in the end it works.

I think every individual investor out there who’s struggling to find winning stock picks to secure their financial future deserves a chance to make the kind of gains my readers have enjoyed over the past few years. That’s why I’ve released a special presentation about my system that reveals the proprietary trading techniques that govern it. You’ll learn more about the turtle traders and how they were able to amass millions in wealth, and how by following my simple system and strict set of trading rules, you can be on your way to outsized gains, too.

To watch this special presentation, click here.