Join Rich Brennan, Jerry Parker, and Adam Havryliv for Episode 13 of Turtle Talk, with a very special guest: Mike Melissinos, founder of Melissinos Trading and one of the genuinely uncompromising classic trend followers you can count on one hand. Same system, same rules since 2011, no watering it down for institutional palatability.
Rich and Adam are fresh back from Malaysia, and April delivered one of the wildest months in memory. A tariff shock, a ceasefire reversal, the Strait closing, and energy and metals whipping in opposite directions. Classic trend following held its nerve and came out on top.
In this episode:
📊 Battle of the Trend Following Indexes, April 2026 Review The Classic Trend Index finished April up 6.7%, the highest return against the peer benchmarks and a strong reversal from a slightly negative prior month. Rich digs into the VAMI chart, the widening separation since January 2020, and his "smooth world to rough world" thesis: why amplified convexity rewards those who keep their outliers intact, and why smoothing the equity curve costs you the very trades that define the strategy. 👉 Full report: https://www.aussieturtles.com/battle-of-the-trend-following-indexes-april-2026/
📈 What's Moved the Needle Jerry makes the case for the strong Australian dollar and the underused world of currency crosses, recalling the Mark versus Franc monster trend of the 90s. Mike brings SanDisk, up over 4,000% in a year, a genuine 40-bagger and poster child of the AI storage trade. Adam ties the AI and RAM thematic across Asia, with Taiwan up around 100%, Japan around 50%, and the Samsung-heavy Korean index up roughly 300%.
🎙️ Spotlight: The Mike Melissinos Story The main event. From public accounting and a quiet summer at Bear Stearns in 2007, to discovering trend following as the GFC unraveled, to launching his firm in 2011 into one of the toughest regimes the strategy has ever seen. We go deep on Ed Seykota and the Trading Tribe, the "trend following blues," surviving a 50% plus drawdown, and the hard-won discipline of feeling nothing when the performance finally arrives.
🔍 Coming Soon: Myth Busters and the Cutback Rule We ran out of clock, so Mike is coming back to finish the job. Next time: two Myth Busters, one from Jerry and one from Mike, plus a Shell Mail question on the cutback rule.
🐢 Connect with Mike Melissinos michael@melissinostrading.com https://melissinostrading.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmelissinos/
📚 The Books Complex Adaptive Markets: How Living Systems Shape Finance. The theoretical foundation for why markets adapt. 👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FKZP8FQJ
The Fractals of Finance: Determinism, Adaptation and the Geometry of Markets. Why trend following works, with a foreword by Jerry Parker. 👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GHTH1WNK
The Aussie Turtles Trend Following Guide: A Field Manual for Hunting Outliers. Co-authored with Adam Havryliv. 👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FT1NCXP4
All three available now on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle.
📩 Send your Shell Mail questions: https://www.aussieturtles.com/contact
Subscribe so you don't miss Mike's return for Myth Busters and the cutback rule.
Stay systematic. Stay patient. And may the trend be with you.
