Inside the Mind of the Turtles: How the World’s Best Traders Master Risk
$12.20
Inside the Mind of the Turtles provides expert insight into how great traders combat the natural but counterproductive response to risk. Faith begins by examining the nature of risk and the human being’s natural response to it. Then he outlines proven techniques for seizing control of it.
Author’s Note:
Many of the lessons learned by the Turtles are applied by venture capitalists and successful entrepreneurs to other, more common circumstances under the umbrella of managing risk in an uncertain world. These lessons are especially important because people are not very good at making decisions when there are no identifiable correct answers or when the risk of failure is significantly high. In fact, people systematically make all sorts of errors when making decisions around uncertainty and risk.
After the Turtle program ended, I became good friends with a former emergency room doctor and found out that the way they approach risk and the uncertainty of diagnosis and patient response was very similar to the approaches used by traders and entrepreneurs.
In this book I will take you inside the mind of the Turtles and others who master risk every day. I will outline the strategies used by the Turtles, professional traders, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and emergency room doctors for anticipating, managing, and mitigating risk. I will also show how these strategies can be applied in more common everyday situations. Before I begin my discussion of risk, though, I want to show you just how important making the right decisions under uncertainty can be.
Contents:
- Life, Death, and Uncertainty
- Risk: Friend or Foe?
- Uncertainty
- Learning from the Masters of Risk
- Uncertain Business
- The Risk Doctors
- Fear—The Mind Killer
- Adapt or Die
- Risking Right
- The Right Way to Be Wrong
- Reality Bites
- Act in Time
- When Wrong Is Right
- Reading, Writing, and Conformity
- Risking Together
- Jumping Out of that Plane
Inside the Mind of the Turtles: How the World's Best Traders Master Risk By Curtis M. Faith pdf
| Author(s) | |
|---|---|
| Format | |
| Pages | 240 |
| Publication Year | 2009 |
19 reviews for Inside the Mind of the Turtles: How the World’s Best Traders Master Risk
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Riley Smith (verified owner) –
The author is one of the Turtles; however, this is NOT a trading book. It is a book about risk in general.
So if you want to read a book about taking risks in life, you might find it useful. If you are looking for a trading book, then this is the wrong book for you.
Furthermore, the author is in jail for the choices he made and the risks he took in life. So I wouldn’t want somebody with such credentials telling me about life and risk. (I don’t want to be mean, but that’s the truth.)
Leyla Cordova (verified owner) –
Did not like it it was not what i wanted as i was studying real turtles and my partner thought this book would help it did not lol but it was the thought that counted.
Rudy Landry (verified owner) –
interesting read as long as you don’t expect to find the holy grail of risk management.
Brayden Merritt (verified owner) –
The moment I laid my eyes upon this book, I realized that I wasn’t holding just a book; I was holding a trader’s treasure. Because I believe this is just what a budding trader who really wants to make it through needs.
I ordered it from Canada and had to come all the way from the US just to get a copy; but it was worth the wait. Though when it arrived: physically, the book jacket was wrinkled. I was expecting to see at least some cushion plastic around it to prevent it from happening; good thing I bought a hardbound. And I felt like I was served a gourmet meal with a less than presentable presentation.
I could’ve placed 5 stars on this; the delivery method was what made it lose one. Other than that, I am super looking forward to what this book can teach me with regard to proper and effective risk management so I can grow as a consistently well-disciplined and profitable trader!
Sophie O’brien (verified owner) –
If you’re expecting a “How-To” practical approach, forget about it. Faith’s indifference was evident in his borrowed platitudes and anecdotes. It appeared this author was just meeting a deadline; i.e honoring the remnants of his publishing contract.
Maybe his previous Turtle books had more to offer but you wouldn’t know it by this one.
Cyrus Howard (verified owner) –
This is a beginners book about risk in general. Not much trading related info and no Turtle related info at all.
Lillie Peck (verified owner) –
This book by one of the few Turtles who didn’t make it big, is just a long monologue on the author’s view of risk. There are some good points and things to think about but it’s mostly a lot of words around a few simple principles. It’s a real disappointment. I had to give up after four chapters.
Aliza Holmes (verified owner) –
Inside the Mind of the Turtles is a great companion book to the author’s first, more technical discussion of Turtle trading. In this new book readers will have the benefit of the author and other experts’ experiences on understanding and controlling their reactions (behavioral and heuristics) to risk. It offers perspectives outside of traditional trading books and gives readers a broader understanding of risk itself. A reader of trading books, this was a fresh take on the practice. It’s well worth the read.
Jordan Ballard (verified owner) –
I am torn writing this review. As an aspiring author myself I understand what it takes to put a book together. You give your life to the text and spend hours looking for exactly the right word to use at the right place. At least this is what I do….
This book was poorly written and provided very little information that was relevant to the title. The author provided explanations about your other business adventures that were not related to trading. I bought the book because your “claim” to fame is the most successful Turtle. Certainly providing more detail about your trading experience would have made for a better read. After all your trading experience is what we want to know about – not other exploits.
The book touts the names of other Turtles – ones that are actively managing money now. I expected quotes and insights from these people. What I got was 10 – 15 word quotes that could have been found in magazines or other places. There was nothing new in this book – or insights from other traders.
Traders and aspiring traders should use their time on another text. I got very little out of this book and I would not recommend it to anyone else.
King Meyers (verified owner) –
“Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.” – James Bryant Conant
I usually do not read books about the stock market/trading etc. but I figure a change never hurts. I am not an active trader.
Inside the Minds of the Turtles is a book about risk, markets and trading. The Turtles are a group of traders who studied under Rich Dennis in the mid eighties. They were rampantly successful.
The book emphasizes the need for risk taking (and as an entrepreneur, I always do take calculated risks). It also emphasized the need to moderate those risks. I have always said “fail often, fail fast, fail cheap”. Turtles focuses mostly on the fail often and fail cheap. And not to let fear paralyse.
Faith says “Fear is a mind killer”, “Fear can paralyse” and “adapt or die – survival of the fittest is not survival of the strongest but survival of the most adaptable”. So true.
In reading, I was worried the “systems” practised got results only through luck. Or perhaps I missed the logic underlying the decision. Perhaps I do not believe in trading systems and believe more in fundamentals.
Not sure I will take any action as a result of reading but it was an interesting and fun read. Almost like a good fiction book. He shared stories of skydiving, sailing accidents and adventures. Good book for a diversion.
Khalani Small (verified owner) –
I’ve read three of the “Turtle” books, two by Curtis Faith and one (Complete Turtle Trader) by Michael Covel. And, the other two were just much better in many ways than “Inside the Mind of the Turtles.” I was expecting this book to cover the idea of risk in trading from the “Turtle” perspective, and while some digressions into other types of risk (skydiving, emergency rooms, business start-ups) are fine, Faith spends way too much time on these subjects. Obviously, to some degree, they are related to risk in trading, but I would like to have read more about market risk management than spending more than half the book on these slightly-off-topics which have not-quite-enough relevance.
One other thing that bothered me is organization of the book. Faith often lists 3 or 4 bullet points which are easy enough to understand, but then goes into more detail than necessary explaining each point. The entire book is structured like this, and due to the topics mentioned above, the stories of personal success, as well as the structure, I felt like I was reading someone’s self-glorifying high-school essay.
To be fair, Faith does stick with the topic of risk and I did get a little bit of useful information, but this book is just nothing compared to the other two “Turtle” books. They are more well-written, more informative, more useful, and more fun to read. This one was kind of a disappointment.
Jovie Brooks (verified owner) –
I was happy to see this book, having greatly enjoyed, admired, and learned from Faith’s first book, “Way of the Turtle.” I was looking to learn more about risk and risk management in both investing and in gambling (poker). When I thumbed through the book and examined the contents, I thought it would be just what I was looking for.
The book disappoints. While it does deliver 7 rules for handling uncertainty and risk, and provides what I consider to be a superior definition of risk, overall it falls well short of what I hoped for.
Some specifics. First, lots of the book is not about trading or handling risk in investing, which is Faith’s claim to fame. It meanders into and out of various subjects. In Faith’s mind–and his intent for this book–I think the common thread is that all the stories are tied together in that they involve uncertainty and risk. Well, lots of life’s decisions involve risk, so he’s right about that. But as soon as he wandered into non-trading subjects, the quality of writing plunged, became almost like a high-school term paper rather than the observations of a mature and polished professional.
Second, I use words like “meanders” deliberately. About a dozen times throughout the book, I suddenly realized the subject had changed, segued from, say, trading into entrepreneurship. More than once I had to check to see whether two pages had stuck together and I had inadvertently jumped ahead and missed a transition. That was disconcerting. No pages had ever stuck together. Rather, the author just changed subjects without warning or transition.
Third, since I was interested mainly in the ideas of risk as applied to trading and investing, and finding his digressions to be unhelpful, after awhile I just skimmed through the off-point stories (to be sure I didn’t miss a dropped-in sentence about trading). I did not find any of the other subjects to be helful, and the stories weren’t that interesting.
Fourth, I usually don’t like boxed-in quotes (from another person) that are placed nearby relevant text. They interrupt the flow, and I often consider the technique lazy: In a non-fiction book where you are developing a theory, it’s the author’s job to develop that theory in a sequential fashion. The dropped-in quote allows the author to get in an idea that doesn’t quite fit without really explaining it. And the quotes themselves were mostly low quality. The book would have been better without them.
Finally, in the last 3 chapters (or so), the author attempts to develop theories about how handling uncertainty and risk can make for a better world. The effort seemed juvenile, again like a term paper.
Bottom line: If you are looking for a book about how the Turtles handled risk and uncertainty in their trading, you will find it (somewhat) in this book, but you will have to find it among lots of off-topic, poorly developed writing. About half the book is for you, but it’s spread around among the whole book. You’ll have to search for it among the irrelevant stuff.
Alejandra Pennington (verified owner) –
I disliked this book. It is poorly organized. There are supposedly seven risk principles. Some take one chapter and then some are spread across several chapters. I actually gained more by reading the summary here on Sacred Traders- and I just finished reading this thing.
Also, Curtis Faith takes an entire book (“Way of the Turtle”) to say that only fools try to predict the market’s direction – the reasoning being that it is far too complex. I couldn’t agree more. I was shocked then when I got to the end of this book and he begin making broad predictions about the state of the world in the next few decades (i.e., cities will be under water because of global warming, etc.). Now, from the text of this book, I can tell he has a high opinion of himself…. but PLEASE! Talk about a massive self-contradiction and blatant ego stroking.
Do yourself a favor: skip this one. Read “Trend Following” by Michael Covel and “Way of the Turtle” by Curtis Faith.
Vicente Knapp (verified owner) –
I was browse though the book store when I came upon this book. I have learned about the name of the Turtle for quite a while, although not really a fan, I am interested to know what this whole turtle thing is about.
First of all the book is easy to read and comes with explanations with the help of short stories. I believe the writer is using metaphors to bring through his ideas.
If you are looking through this book for techniques to be applied for trading, you will definitely be disappointed, because the book mentioned none of this. Instead it concentrate on the way one should be thinking while in the market. It is all about countering your psychological barriers. Indeed, one may have all the techniques for trade but he still can lose big time because he is having the wrong mindset. There are many books in the market on techniques but this is a rare book about how we should be tackling our internal fear and greed.
I believe that this is a good book to help beginners to prepare themselves for what is coming to them.
Bruce Mata (verified owner) –
what a disappointment!
I rate The Way of the Turtle by Curtis as amongst the absolute best books that I’ve read about trading.
Inside the Mind of the Turtles is merely a self indulgent rant and of almost NO value in relation to trading.
Olivia Hopkins (verified owner) –
This book is about risk management in all areas of life not just trading. The author does a good job of explaining risk by using examples from emergency room doctors and parachuting. I believe that while experienced traders who read this book for insights into how Curtis Faith made $30 million as one of the famous turtle traders under Richard Dennis will be disappointed at the simplicity of the book. I do believe new traders will learn much about the dynamics of risk and how to be a successful trader through properly managing their accounts exposure to risk. Many other reviewers believe that the author went into to many examples off the topic of trading risk, and while I found most of the examples very helpful I have to agree. This book is not a 100% book about trading but it is a great book that covers many interesting topics tied into risk management.
Risk is defined as “exposure to the consequences of uncertainty” Risk is not something to be feared and avoided but something to be respected and understood. With out risk there would be no potential for profit. Traders take on risk in exchange for the potential for making money. Risk must be carefully controlled or it can be lethal.
The book explains the seven rules great traders use to manage risk:
1. Overcome fear.
2. Remain flexible.
3. Take reasoned risks.
4. Prepare to be wrong.
5. Actively seek reality.
6. Respond quickly to change.
7. Focus on decisions, not outcomes.
As a trader myself I have used all of these rules and they are essential for success in trading and other areas of life. This book is an excellent introduction to risk and will be a 5 star book for beginning traders, but experienced traders will likely find it to basic and be disappointed. I really enjoyed this refresher on risk management.
Apollo Pratt (verified owner) –
The book by Curtis Faith, Inside the Mind of the Turtles, was well-written and thoughtful. It focused on the correct view of ‘risk’ when investing in business or in the stock market.
Ali Finley (verified owner) –
Curtis Faith demonstrates he is well accomplished in dealing with risky situations. Experienced with human psychology in terms of dealing with risk in a broad spectrum of endeavors; the author here offers the reader pearls of wisdom to contemplate. The title is not truly befitting the books content. The content however should not be judged on that account, but by its worth and potential value. So while if one is expecting to find “how to” solutions, they will be disappointed. I however had no pre conceived expectations and thus can recommend the book for its hidden value and interesting insights.
Brynleigh Trujillo (verified owner) –
I’ve read this twice now and despite all of the bad things that have been written about Faith, I think he knows his stuff and presents it well. He just went a little outside of his expertise in other business ventures. That has nothing to do with his trading expertise.