Richard Donchian

Richard Davoud Donchian (born September 1905, Hartford, Connecticut – d. 1993) was an Armenian-American commodities and futures trader, and pioneer in the field of managed futures.

The first publicly managed futures fund, Futures, Inc., was started in 1949 by Richard Donchian. He also developed the trend timing method of futures investing and introduced the mutual fund concept to the field of money management.

Richard Donchian is considered to be the creator of the managed futures industry and is credited with developing a systematic approach to futures money management. His professional trading career was dedicated to advancing a more conservative approach to futures trading.

Richard's parents were Armenian immigrants from Western Armenia which was part of the Ottoman Empire back in the 1880s and had come to settle in the USA. As a young man Richard went to school in Connecticut, later graduating from Yale University with a BA degree in Economics. He later receives his MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. Richard's first taste of the job market was as an assistant in his family’s Oriental rug business.

During this time Richard came across the fictionalized biography of stock market whiz Jesse Livermore titled , After reading this book Richard became so fascinated that his interest turned to studying the financial markets. During the market crash of 1929 he lost some money. This experience led him to study technical analysis and become a student of price history alone and for its own sake.

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