Note that I have added two Wizards to the list for this new year: Mark J. Walsh and Sunrise Capital – thanks for the suggestion fom a reader of the blog.

Mark J. Walsh started as a runner/floor broker for Richard Dennis, and as such was allowed to attend the Turtle training. He worked closely with Richard Dennis and ultimately started his own firm in 1985 returning over 20% compounded annual return since.

Sunrise Capital Partners are a failry large Trend Follower, based in San Diego. They have been trading for over 30 years.

Note that I have also added (in the Notes section) the program tracked for each of the Wizards.

Please find below the detailed results for January 2011:

Notes

These are top of the range CTAs/Managed Futures funds in the Trend Following space.
Most of the traders behind these funds have been involved in the Turtle Trading experiment (2 excellent books on this topic: Complete Turtle Trader – featuring the actual turtle rules and The Way of the Turtle), featured in the legendary books by Jack Schwager: Market Wizards and New Market Wizards, or in Michael Covel’s dedicated Trend Following book.
 

The average monthly return for December 2010 was 7.38%, with an average yearly performance of 19.11%.

I’ll try to run some further analysis on the results for the year in a next post, as well as a comparison with the State of TF report.

Here are the results as of end-December 2010:

Notes
<sup>* YTD: Year-To-Date performance.
** AUM: Assets Under Management.
1. Abraham Trading was founded by Salem Abraham, after he was introduced to Managed Futures and Trend Following by Jerry Parker. He is considered as a “second-generation” Turtle.
2. Altis Partners started trading in 2001 and now manage over a $1B with their Altis Global Futures Portfolio. The figures referenced in the performance table are not provided by Altis Partners and no reliance should be taken as to their accuracy, and as a consequence the figures may not be in accordance with any CFTC / NFA performance reporting requirements.
3. The four founders of Aspect (Eugene Lambert, Anthony Todd, Michael Adam and Martin Lueck) were significant members of one of the most succesful funds in managed futures – AHL (Adam, Harding and Lueck).
4. BlueTrend, from BlueCrest Capital, is one of the largest Trend Following funds – headed by Ms. Leda Braga
5. Campbell & Company is one of the oldest Trend Following firms, operating for around 4 decades.
6. Chesapeake Capital was founded by Jerry Parker, a former Turtle.
7. Clarke Capital was founded by Michael Clarke in 1993. The programme tracked here is Millenium.
8. Drury Capital, Inc., was founded in Illinois in 1992 by Mr. Bernard Drury.
9. Dunn Capital was founded by Bill Dunn.
10. Eckhardt Trading is the firm managed by William Eckhardt, who co-led the Turtle experiment with Richard Dennis
11. EMC Capital was founded by Liz Cheval, a former Turtle.
12. Hawksbill Capital was founded by Tom Shanks, a former Turtle.
13. Hyman Beck & Co. main principals are Alexander Hyman and Carl Beck.
14. JWH & Co. was founded by John W. Henry, Owner of the Boston Red Sox.
15. Originally ED & F Man. Became a succesful CTA under Larry Hite and went on to form part of The Man Group plc, which subsequently bought AHL to form the Man AHL: the systematic trading division of the Man group.
16. Millburn Ridgefield have been trading Trend Following models since the early 1970′s.
17. Rabar Market Research is the company of Paul Rabar, a former Turtle.
18. Saxon Investment was founded by Howard Seidler, a former Turtle.
19. Superfund founder and CEO: Christian Baha.
20. Tactical Investment Management was founded by David Druz, a student of Ed Seykota.
21. Transtrend is a Trend follower CTA based in Netherlands
22. Winton Capital is a London-based CTA founded by Dave Harding (also co-founder of AHL).
 
Note that the figures referenced in the performance table are not provided directly by any of the funds/CTAs featured in this report, but are sourced from other publications such as hedge fund/CTA websites.</sup>

These are top of the range CTAs/Managed Futures funds in the Trend Following space.
Most of the traders behind these funds have been involved in the Turtle Trading experiment (2 good books on this topic: Complete Turtle Trader – featuring the actual turtle rules and The Way of the Turtle), featured in the legendary books by Jack Schwager: Market Wizards and New Market Wizards, or in Michael Covel’s dedicated Trend Following book.
 
 
 
 

The average monthly return is +4.81%, and the YTD figure now stands at +12.04%.

Please find below all individual results for October 2010:

Notes
<sup>* YTD: Year-To-Date performance.
** AUM: Assets Under Management.
1. Abraham Trading was founded by Salem Abraham, after he was introduced to Managed Futures and Trend Following by Jerry Parker. He is considered as a “second-generation” Turtle.
2. Altis Partners started trading in 2001 and now manage over a $1B with their Altis Global Futures Portfolio. The figures referenced in the performance table are not provided by Altis Partners and no reliance should be taken as to their accuracy, and as a consequence the figures may not be in accordance with any CFTC / NFA performance reporting requirements.
3. The four founders of Aspect (Eugene Lambert, Anthony Todd, Michael Adam and Martin Lueck) were significant members of one of the most succesful funds in managed futures – AHL (Adam, Harding and Lueck).
4. BlueTrend, from BlueCrest Capital, is one of the largest Trend Following funds – headed by Ms. Leda Braga
5. Campbell & Company is one of the oldest Trend Following firms, operating for around 4 decades.
6. Chesapeake Capital was founded by Jerry Parker, a former Turtle.
7. Clarke Capital was founded by Michael Clarke in 1993.
8. Drury Capital, Inc., was founded in Illinois in 1992 by Mr. Bernard Drury.
9. Dunn Capital was founded by Bill Dunn.
10. Eckhardt Trading is the firm managed by William Eckhardt, who co-led the Turtle experiment with Richard Dennis
11. EMC Capital was founded by Liz Cheval, a former Turtle.
12. Hawksbill Capital was founded by Tom Shanks, a former Turtle.
13. Hyman Beck & Co. main principals are Alexander Hyman and Carl Beck.
14. JWH & Co. was founded by John W. Henry, Owner of the Boston Red Sox.
15. Originally ED & F Man. Became a succesful CTA under Larry Hite and went on to form part of The Man Group plc, which subsequently bought AHL to form the Man AHL: the systematic trading division of the Man group.
16. Millburn Ridgefield have been trading Trend Following models since the early 1970′s.
17. Rabar Market Research is the company of Paul Rabar, a former Turtle.
18. Saxon Investment was founded by Howard Seidler, a former Turtle.
19. Superfund founder and CEO: Christian Baha.
20. Tactical Investment Management was founded by David Druz, a student of Ed Seykota.
21. Transtrend is a Trend follower CTA based in Netherlands
22. Winton Capital is a London-based CTA founded by Dave Harding (also co-founder of AHL).
 
Note that the figures referenced in the performance table are not provided directly by any of the funds/CTAs featured in this report, but are sourced from other publications such as hedge fund/CTA websites.</sup>

These are top of the range CTAs/Managed Futures funds in the Trend Following space.
Most of the traders behind these funds have been involved in the Turtle Trading experiment (2 excellent books on this topic: Complete Turtle Trader – featuring the actual turtle rules and The Way of the Turtle), featured in the legendary books by Jack Schwager: Market Wizards and New Market Wizards, or in Michael Covel’s dedicated Trend Following book.
 
 
 
&nbsp

The average YTD gain is now 6.48%, and a wizard is standing out with +43.70% so far, at the back of a few strong months.

Note that I have added a new Wizard to this list: David Druz and his Tactical Investment Mgt CTA. Druz is a student of Ed Seykota; he is not a top CTA in terms of AUM (he is quite far off the likes of Winton or BlueTrend, managing billions), but the fact that he is running his operations out of Hawaii, where he devotes a large part of his time to the practice of windsurf and yoga makes it different and interesting to follow.

Please find below all individual results for September 2010:

Notes
<sup>* YTD: Year-To-Date performance.
** AUM: Assets Under Management.
1. Abraham Trading was founded by Salem Abraham, after he was introduced to Managed Futures and Trend Following by Jerry Parker. He is considered as a “”second-generation”" Turtle.
2. Altis Partners started trading in 2001 and now manage over a $1B with their Altis Global Futures Portfolio. The figures referenced in the performance table are not provided by Altis Partners and no reliance should be taken as to their accuracy, and as a consequence the figures may not be in accordance with any CFTC / NFA performance reporting requirements.
3. The four founders of Aspect (Eugene Lambert, Anthony Todd, Michael Adam and Martin Lueck) were significant members of one of the most succesful funds in managed futures – AHL (Adam, Harding and Lueck).
4. BlueTrend, from BlueCrest Capital, is one of the largest Trend Following funds – headed by Ms. Leda Braga
5. Campbell & Company is one of the oldest Trend Following firms, operating for around 4 decades.
6. Chesapeake Capital was founded by Jerry Parker, a former Turtle.
7. Clarke Capital was founded by Michael Clarke in 1993.
8. Drury Capital, Inc., was founded in Illinois in 1992 by Mr. Bernard Drury.
9. Dunn Capital was founded by Bill Dunn.
10. Eckhardt Trading is the firm managed by William Eckhardt, who co-led the Turtle experiment with Richard Dennis
11. EMC Capital was founded by Liz Cheval, a former Turtle.
12. Hawksbill Capital was founded by Tom Shanks, a former Turtle.
13. Hyman Beck & Co. main principals are Alexander Hyman and Carl Beck.
14. JWH & Co. was founded by John W. Henry, Owner of the Boston Red Sox.
15. Originally ED & F Man. Became a succesful CTA under Larry Hite and went on to form part of The Man Group plc, which subsequently bought AHL to form the Man AHL: the systematic trading division of the Man group.
16. Millburn Ridgefield have been trading Trend Following models since the early 1970′s. As they report performance figures one month later, last month performance is not reported in this report and their YTD, AUM stats are from the month before.
17. Rabar Market Research is the company of Paul Rabar, a former Turtle.
18. Saxon Investment was founded by Howard Seidler, a former Turtle.
19. Superfund founder and CEO: Christian Baha.
20. Tactical Investment Management was founded by David Druz, a student of Ed Seykota.
21. Transtrend is a Trend follower CTA based in Netherlands
22. Winton Capital is a London-based CTA founded by Dave Harding (also co-founder of AHL).
 
Note that the figures referenced in the performance table are not provided directly by any of the funds/CTAs featured in this report, but are sourced from other publications such as hedge fund/CTA websites.</sup>

These are top of the range CTAs/Managed Futures funds in the Trend Following space.
Most of the traders behind these funds have been involved in the Turtle Trading experiment (2 excellent books on this topic: Complete Turtle Trader – featuring the actual turtle rules and The Way of the Turtle), featured in the legendary books by Jack Schwager: Market Wizards and New Market Wizards, or in Michael Covel’s dedicated Trend Following book.
 
 
 
 

Similarly, the MA 50-200 strategy did stand out (+20%) in the last state of TF report… It would be tempting but over-simplistic (and a bit foolish) to extrapolate, and suggest that Dunn uses a model close to a 20-50 day MA Crossover (although that might not be far from the truth). I am wondering how much of forensic back-testing goes on to try and reverse-engineer CTA’s performance results and their strategies…

Anyway, this month’s strong performance brought the YTD average figure back in positive territory, to 2.34%.

Please find below all individual results for August 2010:

Notes
<sup>* YTD: Year-To-Date performance.
** AUM: Assets Under Management.
1. Abraham Trading was founded by Salem Abraham, after he was introduced to Managed Futures and Trend Following by Jerry Parker. He is considered as a “second-generation” Turtle.
2. Altis Partners started trading in 2001 and now manage over a $1B with their Altis Global Futures Portfolio. The figures referenced in the performance table are not provided by Altis Partners and no reliance should be taken as to their accuracy, and as a consequence the figures may not be in accordance with any CFTC / NFA performance reporting requirements.
3. The four founders of Aspect (Eugene Lambert, Anthony Todd, Michael Adam and Martin Lueck) were significant members of one of the most succesful funds in managed futures – AHL (Adam, Harding and Lueck).
4. BlueTrend, from BlueCrest Capital, is one of the largest Trend Following funds – headed by Ms. Leda Braga
5. Campbell & Company is one of the oldest Trend Following firms, operating for around 4 decades.
6. Chesapeake Capital was founded by Jerry Parker, a former Turtle.
7. Clarke Capital was founded by Michael Clarke in 1993.
8. Drury Capital, Inc., was founded in Illinois in 1992 by Mr. Bernard Drury.
9. Dunn Capital was founded by Bill Dunn.
10. Eckhardt Trading is the firm managed by William Eckhardt, who co-led the Turtle experiment with Richard Dennis
11. EMC Capital was founded by Liz Cheval, a former Turtle.
12. Hawksbill Capital was founded by Tom Shanks, a former Turtle.
13. Hyman Beck & Co. main principals are Alexander Hyman and Carl Beck.
14. JWH & Co. was founded by John W. Henry, Owner of the Boston Red Sox.
15. Originally ED & F Man. Became a succesful CTA under Larry Hite and went on to form part of The Man Group plc, which subsequently bought AHL to form the Man AHL: the systematic trading division of the Man group.
16. Millburn Ridgefield have been trading Trend Following models since the early 1970′s. As they report performance figures one month later, last month performance is not reported in this report and their YTD, AUM stats are from the month before.
17. Rabar Market Research is the company of Paul Rabar, a former Turtle.
18. Saxon Investment was founded by Howard Seidler, a former Turtle.
19. Superfund founder and CEO: Christian Baha.
20. Transtrend is a Trend follower CTA based in Netherlands
21. Winton Capital is a London-based CTA founded by Dave Harding (also co-founder of AHL).
 
Note that the figures referenced in the performance table are not provided directly by any of the funds/CTAs featured in this report, but are sourced from other publications such as hedge fund/CTA websites.</sup>

These are top of the range CTAs/Managed Futures funds in the Trend Following space.
Most of the traders behind these funds have been involved in the Turtle Trading experiment (2 excellent books on this topic: Complete Turtle Trader – featuring the actual turtle rules and The Way of the Turtle), featured in the legendary books by Jack Schwager: Market Wizards and New Market Wizards, or in Michael Covel’s dedicated Trend Following book.
 
 
 
 

Please find below all individual results for July 2010:

Notes
<sup>* YTD: Year-To-Date performance.
** AUM: Assets Under Management.
1. Abraham Trading was founded by Salem Abraham, after he was introduced to Managed Futures and Trend Following by Jerry Parker. He is considered as a “second-generation” Turtle.
2. Altis Partners started trading in 2001 and now manage over a $1B with their Altis Global Futures Portfolio. The figures referenced in the performance table are not provided by Altis Partners and no reliance should be taken as to their accuracy, and as a consequence the figures may not be in accordance with any CFTC / NFA performance reporting requirements.
3. The four founders of Aspect (Eugene Lambert, Anthony Todd, Michael Adam and Martin Lueck) were significant members of one of the most succesful funds in managed futures – AHL (Adam, Harding and Lueck).
4. BlueTrend, from BlueCrest Capital, is one of the largest Trend Following funds – headed by Ms. Leda Braga
5. Campbell & Company is one of the oldest Trend Following firms, operating for around 4 decades.
6. Chesapeake Capital was founded by Jerry Parker, a former Turtle.
7. Clarke Capital was founded by Michael Clarke in 1993.
8. Drury Capital, Inc., was founded in Illinois in 1992 by Mr. Bernard Drury.
9. Dunn Capital was founded by Bill Dunn.
10. Eckhardt Trading is the firm managed by William Eckhardt, who co-led the Turtle experiment with Richard Dennis
11. EMC Capital was founded by Liz Cheval, a former Turtle.
12. Hawksbill Capital was founded by Tom Shanks, a former Turtle.
13. Hyman Beck & Co. main principals are Alexander Hyman and Carl Beck.
14. JWH & Co. was founded by John W. Henry, Owner of the Boston Red Sox.
15. Originally ED & F Man. Became a succesful CTA under Larry Hite and went on to form part of The Man Group plc, which subsequently bought AHL to form the Man AHL: the systematic trading division of the Man group.
16. Millburn Ridgefield have been trading Trend Following models since the early 1970′s. As they report performance figures one month later, last month performance is not reported in this report and their YTD, AUM stats are from the month before.
17. Rabar Market Research is the company of Paul Rabar, a former Turtle.
18. Saxon Investment was founded by Howard Seidler, a former Turtle.
19. Superfund founder and CEO: Christian Baha.
20. Transtrend is a Trend follower CTA based in Netherlands
21. Winton Capital is a London-based CTA founded by Dave Harding (also co-founder of AHL).
 
Note that the figures referenced in the performance table are not provided directly by any of the funds/CTAs featured in this report, but are sourced from other publications such as hedge fund/CTA websites.</sup>

These are top of the range CTAs/Managed Futures funds in the Trend Following space.
Most of the traders behind these funds have been involved in the Turtle Trading experiment (2 excellent books on this topic: Complete Turtle Trader – featuring the actual turtle rules and The Way of the Turtle), featured in the legendary books by Jack Schwager: Market Wizards and New Market Wizards, or in Michael Covel’s dedicated Trend Following book.
 
 
 
 

The average monthly return is 0.29%, taking the average YTD figure to -1.48%, with a few Wizards being in the double-digit figures on both ends of the scale.

Note that three major players were added to the report this month: Altis Partners, BlueTrend and Campbell & Company.

Please find below all individual results for June 2010:

Notes
<sup>* YTD: Year-To-Date performance.
** AUM: Assets Under Management.
 
1. Abraham Trading was founded by Salem Abraham, after he was introduced to Managed Futures and Trend Following by Jerry Parker. He is considered as a “second-generation” Turtle.
2. Altis Partners started trading in 2001 and now manage over a $1B with their Altis Global Futures Portfolio. The figures referenced in the performance table are not provided by Altis Partners and no reliance should be taken as to their accuracy, and as a consequence the figures may not be in accordance with any CFTC / NFA performance reporting requirements
3. The four founders of Aspect (Eugene Lambert, Anthony Todd, Michael Adam and Martin Lueck) were significant members of one of the most succesful funds in managed futures – AHL (Adam, Harding and Lueck).
4. BlueTrend, from BlueCrest Capital, is one of the largest Trend Following funds – headed by Ms. Leda Braga
5. Campbell & Company is one of the oldest Trend Following firms, operating for around 4 decades.
6. Chesapeake Capital was founded by Jerry Parker, a former Turtle.
7. Clarke Capital was founded by Michael Clarke in 1993.
8. Drury Capital, Inc., was founded in Illinois in 1992 by Mr. Bernard Drury.
9. Dunn Capital was founded by Bill Dunn.
10. Eckhardt Trading is the firm managed by William Eckhardt, who co-led the Turtle experiment with Richard Dennis
11. EMC Capital was founded by Liz Cheval, a former Turtle.
12. Hawksbill Capital was founded by Tom Shanks, a former Turtle.
13. Hyman Beck & Co. main principals are Alexander Hyman and Carl Beck.
14. JWH & Co. was founded by John W. Henry, Owner of the Boston Red Sox.
15. Originally ED & F Man. Became a succesful CTA under Larry Hite and went on to form part of The Man Group plc, which subsequently bought AHL to form the Man AHL: the systematic trading division of the Man group.
16. Millburn Ridgefield have been trading Trend Following models since the early 1970′s. As they report performance figures one month later, last month performance is not reported in this report and their YTD, AUM stats are from the month before.
17. Rabar Market Research is the company of Paul Rabar, a former Turtle.
18. Saxon Investment was founded by Howard Seidler, a former Turtle.
19. Superfund founder and CEO: Christian Baha.
20. Transtrend is a Trend follower CTA based in Netherlands
21. Winton Capital is a London-based CTA founded by Dave Harding (also co-founder of AHL).
 
Note that the figures referenced in the performance table are not provided directly by any of the funds/CTAs featured in this report, but are sourced from other publications such as hedge fund/CTA websites.</sup>

These are top of the range CTAs/Managed Futures funds in the Trend Following space.
Most of the traders behind these funds have been involved in the Turtle Trading experiment (2 excellent books on this topic: Complete Turtle Trader – featuring the actual turtle rules and The Way of the Turtle), featured in the legendary books by Jack Schwager: Market Wizards and New Market Wizards, or in Michael Covel’s dedicated Trend Following book.
 
 
 
 

This contrasts with the +35% result found in some of the strategies in the State of Trend Following Report. If the assumption that CTA performances and simple Trend Following strategies (which compose the State of TF report) holds true, one might want to extrapolate and speculate on what type of strategies/timeframe CTAs run.

As a side note, if you have any suggestions of large recognized Trend Following CTAs/Funds to be included in this report, please let me know in the comments. Funds currently on my list of possible additions (provided they publish the information easily accessible): BlueTrend, Graham, Campbell.

Here are the detailed results for May 2010:

Notes
<sup>* YTD: Year-To-Date performance.
** AUM: Assets Under Management.
1. Abraham Trading was founded by Salem Abraham, after he was introduced to Managed Futures and Trend Following by Jerry Parker. He is considered as a “second-generation” Turtle.
2. The four founders of Aspect (Eugene Lambert, Anthony Todd, Michael Adam and Martin Lueck) were significant members of one of the most succesful funds in managed futures – AHL (Adam, Harding and Lueck)
3. Chesapeake Capital was founded by Jerry Parker, a former Turtle.
4. Clarke Capital was founded by Michael Clarke in 1993.
5. Drury Capital, Inc., was founded in Illinois in 1992 by Mr. Bernard Drury.
6. Dunn Capital was founded by Bill Dunn.
7. Eckhardt Trading is the firm managed by William Eckhardt, who co-led the Turtle experiment with Richard Dennis
8. EMC Capital was founded by Liz Cheval, a former Turtle.
9. Hawksbill Capital was founded by Tom Shanks, a former Turtle.
10. Hyman Beck & Co. main principals are Alexander Hyman and Carl Beck.
11. JWH & Co. was founded by John W. Henry, Owner of the Boston Red Sox.
12. Originally ED & F Man. Became a succesful CTA under Larry Hite and went on to form part of The Man Group plc, which subsequently bought AHL to form the Man AHL: the systematic trading division of the Man group.
13. Millburn Ridgefield have been trading Trend Following models since the early 1970′s. As they report performance figures one month later, last month performance is not reported in this report and their YTD, AUM stats are from the month before.
14. Rabar Market Research is the company of Paul Rabar, a former Turtle.
15. Saxon Investment was founded by Howard Seidler, a former Turtle.
16. Superfund founder and CEO: Christian Baha.
17. Transtrend is a Trend follower CTA based in Netherlands
18. Winton Capital is a London-based CTA founded by Dave Harding (also co-founder of AHL).</sup>

These are top of the range CTAs/Managed Futures funds in the Trend Following space.
Most of the traders behind these funds have been involved in the Turtle Trading experiment (2 excellent books on this topic: Complete Turtle Trader – featuring the actual turtle rules and The Way of the Turtle), featured in the legendary books by Jack Schwager: Market Wizards and New Market Wizards, or in Michael Covel’s dedicated Trend Following book.
 
 
 
 

Looking over the drawdown cliffs

in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

Arguing against Ben Franklin, I would say it is certain your (and my) Max Drawdown so far – whether in real trading or backtest – will be surpassed in the future. The maths even say that the probability of any drawdown in the future is 100% (although this might require a very long future, in a similar logic to the Infinite Monkey Theorem).

Dave Harding on Drawdown

I came across this paper (PDF download) from Winton Capital, co-authored by David Harding, which discusses the pros and cons of drawdown as a statistical measure, whether used to evaluate managers or trading systems.

The main points of the paper are:

• Unlike volatility, drawdown represents a physical reality: the magnitude of loss that an investor could have suffered – this is probably why it is a popular statistic to evaluate systems and funds performance/risk.

• Drawdown is not such a good indicator of quality for a system or manager – at least not as straightforward as usually assumed.

• A couple of charts illustrate how expected maximum drawdown increases with volatility, track record and reporting frequency. On the other hand, drawdown decreases as mean return increases. Nothing too surprising.

• Maximum drawdown is a a single number derived from a single string of data: it is going to have a large error associated with it. Any extrapolation of future performance will therefore be highly error-prone. Even with adjustments to equalise the volatility of track records, maximum drawdown is a poor statistic for making inferences about future reward/risk ratio or even future drawdown. Averaging worst drawdowns would be less error-prone, statistically speaking.

The paper concludes with:

Drawdown may have a role in manager risk control, but it should be used with caution, and should be calculated with reference to probability (95%, 99% confidence level) from the characteristics of the underlying process rather than purely from the historical track record.

Risk of Drawdown

A couple of volumes on my bookshelf discuss drawdowns and how to calculate their probability.

Balsara, in Money Management Strategies for Futures Traders, publishes tables of calculated risk of ruins based on different parameters.

However risk of ruin is different from risk of drawdown. Ruin is usually defined as a fixed capital level, representing a large percentage loss on initial capital. For example, a risk of ruin at 60% is the probability that your equity falls to 40% of your startuing capital. As the equity grows, the risk of hitting that “ruin threshold” decreases.

Risk of drawdown, on the other hand, stays constant regardless of how high the equity grows, because the drawdown “capital barrier” keeps moving up in line with the equity. Vince expands the concept of risk of ruin by modifying the calculation to derive the risk of drawdown (in The Handbook of Portfolio Mathematics)

Both risk of drawdown and risk of ruin increase as the track period or backtest length increases. However, the risk of drawdown tends to 100% as track period length increases, whereas the risk of ruin is bounded at a value determined by the characteristic of the trading system results (probability of win, payoff, trade risk, etc.).

Monte-Carlo simulation allows for estimating the risks of drawdown and ruin by iterating a random process governed by characteristics such as probability of win, payoff ratio, percentage of capital risked on each trade.

Risk of Ruin formula

Perry Kaufman, in New Trading Systems and Methods, presents a formula to calculate the risk of ruin. This is more convenient than having to run a Monte-Carlo simulation but it does not allow for calculating a risk of drawdown.

The formula is as follows:

Calculate your risk of Drawdown/Ruin

Below is a calculator that implements risk of ruin or risk of drawdown calculations based on the two methods described above (the risk of ruin is calculated from both a Monte-Carlo simulation and from the formula).

Just fill in the stats of the trading system, the test length and the level of drawdown/ruin to be tested and hit the Calculate button. Note that both calculated values can diverge significantly (as in the pre-populated example) if the number of periods is relatively low.

In case you find this tool useful, it has been added under the resources page. Disclaimer: I have not done full-proof 100% testing on it but playing with it seems to give good results.

Note that this method is probably not ideal as it only considers the average trade statistics and simulates sequential trading (whereas real-life systems will have multiple trades on the go at the same time). Also importantly, it completely ignores any time-dependence in the stream of results (such as auto-correlation, etc.).

The Trading Blox approach

Trading Blox runs Monte-Carlo simulations for any system backtested and produces some useful charts and information from it.

The Monte-Carlo simulation is different as it is applied to the daily equity curve returns – which is probably more realistic (although it still removes the time-dependence of the return stream).

One of the standard charts produced analyses drawdowns and attempts to give confidence levels as discussed in the Harding paper:

The recent turmoils developing in the markets will give us interesting times to monitor how the Trend Following Wizard performances fare. If 2008 is any indication, and if we return to large moves to the downside, some good times might be coming (although some early May figures appeared to be quite strong on the negative side – mostly because of reversal of trends).

For now, the average Wizards return for April is +1.82%.

Full results for April 2010 below:

Notes
<sup>* YTD: Year-To-Date performance.
** AUM: Assets Under Management.
1. Abraham Trading was founded by Salem Abraham, after he was introduced to Managed Futures and Trend Following by Jerry Parker. He is considered as a “second-generation” Turtle.
2. The four founders of Aspect (Eugene Lambert, Anthony Todd, Michael Adam and Martin Lueck) were significant members of one of the most succesful funds in managed futures – AHL (Adam, Harding and Lueck)
3. Chesapeake Capital was founded by Jerry Parker, a former Turtle.
4. Clarke Capital was founded by Michael Clarke in 1993.
5. Drury Capital, Inc., was founded in Illinois in 1992 by Mr. Bernard Drury.
6. Dunn Capital was founded by Bill Dunn.
7. Eckhardt Trading is the firm managed by William Eckhardt, who co-led the Turtle experiment with Richard Dennis
8. EMC Capital was founded by Liz Cheval, a former Turtle.
9. Hawksbill Capital was founded by Tom Shanks, a former Turtle.
10. Hyman Beck & Co. main principals are Alexander Hyman and Carl Beck.
11. JWH & Co. was founded by John W. Henry, Owner of the Boston Red Sox.
12. Originally ED & F Man. Became a succesful CTA under Larry Hite and went on to form part of The Man Group plc, which subsequently bought AHL to form the Man AHL: the systematic trading division of the Man group.
13. Millburn Ridgefield have been trading Trend Following models since the early 1970′s. As they report performance figures one month later, last month performance is not reported in this report and their YTD, AUM stats are from the month before.
14. Rabar Market Research is the company of Paul Rabar, a former Turtle.
15. Saxon Investment was founded by Howard Seidler, a former Turtle.
16. Superfund founder and CEO: Christian Baha.
17. Transtrend is a Trend follower CTA based in Netherlands
18. Winton Capital is a London-based CTA founded by Dave Harding (also co-founder of AHL).</sup>

These are top of the range CTAs/Managed Futures funds in the Trend Following space.
Most of the traders behind these funds have been involved in the Turtle Trading experiment (2 excellent books on this topic: Complete Turtle Trader – featuring the actual turtle rules and The Way of the Turtle), featured in the legendary books by Jack Schwager: Market Wizards and New Market Wizards, or in Michael Covel’s dedicated Trend Following book.