Book Review: Way of the Turtle by Curtis M. Faith
Apparently, there was an interesting “experiment†begun in 1983 that resulted from a wager between two successful commodities traders, Richard Dennis and William Eckhardt, regarding nature vs nurture. Dennis felt that ordinary people could be taught to trade successfully using the techniques that he had used to become successful while Eckhardt felt that traders were born not made. So, they devised an experiment where they placed an ad in the paper, screened many individuals, and picked 23 people, training them over 2 weeks time. Faith was 19 years old and ended up turning $2 million (Dennis bankrolled) into $30 million in just over 4 years. The group was known as the “Turtles†and this book tells their secrets.
The introduction tells about how the author becomes involved by answering an ad in the paper. It is a neat little story. From there, he goes on to discuss some generalities of the market. Chapter 1 discusses risk and that traders trade risk. Companies will hedge costs and traders will take on some of this risk with the hope of profiting from it. Chapter 2 discusses human emotion in the market and the biases that can affect one’s ability to trade.
Chapter 3 gets back to the Turtles and sums up the two week training session in 4 main points:
1. Trade with an edge: this means you want some system that you would expect to generate gains over the long term. Not every trade will be profitable but the gains will outweigh the losses.
2. Manage risk: live to trade another day
3. Be consistent: stick to your plan
4. Keep it simple
Curtis goes on to discuss some of his trades and that at the end of a month trial period, he received $2 million with which to trade.
The rest of the book goes on to talk about such concepts as thinking in terms of probabilities, cutting losses short, expectancy and position sizing.
Overall I thought it was a very good book. I had difficulty putting it down. If you don’t care for trading, however, you may not enjoy it as much. It gets into some mathematics but more in general terms and not highly technical. It is not a “how-to†book in that it doesn’t tell you how to trade but encourages you to develop a system and then use that system with a certain mindset.
I would give the book a score of 4.2 out of 5.
Apparently, there was an interesting “experiment†begun in 1983 that resulted from a wager between two successful commodities traders, Richard Dennis and William Eckhardt, regarding nature vs nurture. Dennis felt that ordinary people could be taught to trade successfully using the techniques that he had used to become successful while Eckhardt felt that traders were born not made. So, they devised an experiment where they placed an ad in the paper, screened many individuals, and picked 23 people, training them over 2 weeks time. Faith was 19 years old and ended up turning $2 million (Dennis bankrolled) into $30 million in just over 4 years. The group was known as the “Turtles†and this book tells their secrets.
The introduction tells about how the author becomes involved by answering an ad in the paper. It is a neat little story. From there, he goes on to discuss some generalities of the market. Chapter 1 discusses risk and that traders trade risk. Companies will hedge costs and traders will take on some of this risk with the hope of profiting from it. Chapter 2 discusses human emotion in the market and the biases that can affect one’s ability to trade.
Chapter 3 gets back to the Turtles and sums up the two week training session in 4 main points:
1. Trade with an edge: this means you want some system that you would expect to generate gains over the long term. Not every trade will be profitable but the gains will outweigh the losses.
2. Manage risk: live to trade another day
3. Be consistent: stick to your plan
4. Keep it simple
Curtis goes on to discuss some of his trades and that at the end of a month trial period, he received $2 million with which to trade.
The rest of the book goes on to talk about such concepts as thinking in terms of probabilities, cutting losses short, expectancy and position sizing.
Overall I thought it was a very good book. I had difficulty putting it down. If you don’t care for trading, however, you may not enjoy it as much. It gets into some mathematics but more in general terms and not highly technical. It is not a “how-to†book in that it doesn’t tell you how to trade but encourages you to develop a system and then use that system with a certain mindset.
I would give the book a score of 4.2 out of 5.
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Access Restricted: Unlock 1,000,000+ Posts
Stop Peeking Through the Keyhole.
Open the Door.
You hit a wall because the best advice isn't free—it's earned. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has been active here daily (99.9% active rate), building a war room for entrepreneurs who refuse to settle for mediocrity.
- Active Daily: Life-changing content posted dozens of times every day. No dead threads.
- MJ's Inner Circle: Direct access to the author of The Millionaire Fastlane.
- Vetted Network: Connect with founders scaling to 7 and 8 figures.
- Proven Roadmaps: Strategy over motivation. Execution over "hustle porn."
"SCALED TO 6-FIGURE MONTHS"
"Tips and advice here saved me from huge mistakes, others allowed me to scale my business to 6-figure months."— User MitchC
"INSANE QUALITY OF PEOPLE"
"The number of high quality people I've met from this forum has been insane. All of it predicated on building real value."— User Richard Peck
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with."
Are you surrounding yourself with success?
