The Little Book of Trading: Trend Following Strategy for Big Winnings

Chapter Seven

Throw Away the Fundamentals and Stick to Your Charts

Bernard Drury

WE'VE ALL BEEN TRAINED TO EXPECT STORIES. THE MOST commonly asked question by investors is: “Where is the market going?” People want a prediction. They want to hear a story that will give them the edge needed to beat out their neighbor in the markets. Following the forecast of how many iPhones will be sold next year, if the Brazilian coffee crop will be as expected or not, or if the Fed will influence interest rates—is not the way to make big money. Bernard Drury is a great example of a trader who, early in his career, followed that way of thinking. Only later did he come to the realization that trend following was a more direct path. He let go of fundamentals. For that reason alone he shows that you can change the way you view the world—even if you have been set in your ways for decades.

Drury graduated cum laude from Dartmouth college with a degree in Russian. His trading career began in 1978 as a grain trader for the Louis Dreyfus Corporation. Drury spent the next 15 years as a commercial grain trader, grain market researcher, and proprietary trader for his own account. He was all about understanding, and then trading based on fundamentals.^*

What exactly do grain trader and researcher mean? Here is ...