Richard Dennis: The Story of a Boy Who Became a Millionaire

At the beginning of their journey, many famous traders faced the problem of lack of capital.

After studying the literature and participating in stock exchange training, everyone comes to the conclusion that only a large initial capital will help ensure a rich life if positive trading results are achieved. 

Mathematically, this is true, but the story of Richard Dennis shows that determination and skill in your business, even with a small capital, can bring in millions of dollars.

Richard Dennis is of Native American descent and was born in Chicago in 1949.

Richard experienced his first taste of failure on the stock exchange in school, since at such a young age he had already started working part-time as a simple messenger on the stock exchange floor, where he was paid 40 dollars a week.

Seeing the active work of famous traders, he wanted to try his hand at this business himself, so he began to secretly trade on his meager salary.

Richard recalls those days with a smile, describing how he lost his salary in literally a matter of hours. However, he says it was a small price to pay for the experience he gained, which could have been much greater. Having found a job as a consultant, he began to take his first steps, but there was an age limit on the exchange, which he managed to circumvent by registering his father as a trader.  

What is the depth of this whole story?

Young Richard Dennis, having gained some experience, decided to try his hand as a freelance trader. As you know, to get a trading seat on the exchange, you had to make a down payment of $1,200.

However, Dennis did not have this money, so he borrowed a total of 1600 dollars from all his relatives and friends, of which 1200 was paid for the place, and 400 remained for him to manage.

Richard was a very talented trader, and by the age of 25, he had earned his first million. Futures came so easily to him that he was nicknamed the "King of Futures," because if word got out that Richard intended to buy a particular asset, its price would immediately rise. As you can imagine, such talent couldn't go unnoticed by some investors, so Richard Dennis founded his own fund, the Drexel Fund, and for 20 years he successfully managed it, generating profits for his investors.

Unfortunately, typical mistakes like greed and poor discipline led to the fund's collapse in 1987, as Richard and investors suffered significant losses due to high-risk trading. This turning point was so devastating that he simply closed the fund and permanently retired from managing investor funds.

The most interesting thing is that 14 employees who strictly adhered to his trading strategy ended the year with a plus, but the losses inflicted by Richard neutralized all the achievements of their subordinates.

Long years of reflecting on his mistakes and searching for solutions to optimize his trading strategy continued for six years, after which Richard re-entered the market as a disciplined trader. His first year wasn't his most profitable, with his return amounting to 8 percent of his capital. However, in subsequent years, his return increased to over 100 percent annually.

The story with the turtles.

Among themselves, traders nicknamed Richard "Turtle Coach." The story is both banal and humorous. A successful trader, he bet a colleague that he could teach someone from scratch the stock market so that they could make money. His opponent argued that a simple person without a sense of direction would never be able to make money on the stock market, and no amount of training would help.

As you can imagine, the bet was made, and Richard recruited 23 different interns to his firm and began training them. The results of the experiment were simply phenomenal, as the team managed to earn over $250 million, and Richard outdid his opponent.    

The life story of Richard Dennis shows us that with just $400 in your pocket you can reach incredible heights, and his experiment with interns confirms the words said in dozens of books that anyone can make money on the stock exchange.