Turtle trading and the 20-day breakoutBeginner

The classic trend-following rule set, simplified.

The idea

In the 1980s Richard Dennis taught a group of beginners, the Turtles, a mechanical trend-following system: buy new highs, sell new lows, and cut losers quickly. The core idea, the channel breakout, is still one of the most tested rules in trading.

The rules (simplified)

Buy when price breaks the highest high of the last 20 days.
Sell when it breaks the lowest low.
Many versions add a long-term trend filter such as the 200-day moving average.
Stop at about 2 ATR.

Variations traders use

55-day breakouts, trailing exits at the 10-day low instead of fixed targets, and position sizing by volatility.

What testing shows

Breakouts with a trend filter are one of the few simple rule sets that tend to hold up across several markets, with long flat periods in between. The drawdowns are what make people quit.

What it looks like on a real chart

Picked automatically from the backtest on real data: the latest winner and the latest loser. The numbered circles are the steps of the rules, in order. Losers are part of every strategy.

Winner +2RXAU/USD · 1D · 2026-01-26 · Long

Loser -1RXAU/USD · 1D · 2026-08-20 · Long

How WickCheck tests it

Buy when price breaks above the 20-day high and price is above the 200 SMA. Sell when price breaks below the 20-day low and price is below the 200 SMA. Stop at 2x ATR. Target 2R.

Test it on real data

Open these rules in WickCheck, change any word and run them in seconds. No code.

Run this test

Full results on 5 markets: Turtle trading and the 20-day breakout.

Try it on your own strategy

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Education only, not financial advice. Definitions vary between teachers; these are ours, written for clarity.