#23: Jerry Parker On Finding Your True Calling In Life And The Markets

Superinvestors and the Art of Worldly Wisdom

Jerry Parker began his career as an unfulfilled accountant looking for something more inspiring to do with his life. After getting rejected for several traditional jobs on Wall Street he responded to an ad looking for a handful of people eager to learn how to trade. It would soon turn out those early rejections were an incredible blessing in disguise because if he had been accepted to any one of them he would have likely missed out on the opportunity to learn from one of the true legends of finance. In the early 1980's, Richard Dennis hired Jerry and a handful of other prospective "turtle" traders and taught them the strategies that made him one of the most successful traders in the history of the Chicago markets. After managing money with Dennis for several years, Jerry went on to start his own firm and has been trend-following professionally for over 30 years now. In this conversation, he reveals what he believes helped him stand out among more than 1,000 candidates in the turtle program, what it was about trend-following that spoke to him and what about it should appeal to the average investor. He also explains how the average investor should go about implementing trend-following in her own portfolio. For links and notes related to this episode visit TheFelderReport.com.