Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders
$14.42
| Author(s) | |
|---|---|
| Pages |
312 |
| Format |
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| Publication Year |
2007 |
Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders by Curtis M. Faith is both a trading manual and a personal memoir of one of the most fascinating experiments in financial history. As one of the youngest members of Richard Dennis’s famed “Turtle Traders,” Faith provides a firsthand account of how a group of ordinary individuals, with little to no prior trading experience, were trained to become highly successful traders through a rules-based system.
The book recounts the story of the Turtle Trading experiment, designed to test whether trading success was a matter of innate talent or teachable skills. Faith reveals how Dennis and his partner William Eckhardt instilled discipline, risk management, and systematic approaches into their recruits. The results proved that with proper training and adherence to rules, ordinary people could achieve extraordinary success in markets.
Beyond the historical narrative, Faith dives deep into the core principles of the Turtle system. He explains the methods of trend-following, position sizing, and strict risk controls that enabled the Turtles to thrive across various markets. Importantly, he highlights how discipline and consistency often mattered more than prediction or intuition.
The book also addresses the psychological challenges traders face—fear of loss, greed, and the temptation to break rules. Faith draws from his own experiences, including mistakes and setbacks, to show how even trained traders can falter when emotions override systems. His candid reflections add authenticity and valuable lessons for modern readers.
Way of the Turtle is not just about replicating the Turtle system but about understanding the mindset that underpinned it. Faith encourages traders to adopt principles of discipline, patience, and structured decision-making while adapting systems to their own strengths and circumstances.
Written in a compelling and accessible style, the book appeals to both aspiring traders and seasoned professionals. It offers a rare insider perspective on one of the most legendary trading experiments while distilling timeless lessons about what it takes to succeed in the markets.
Contents:
- Risk Junkies
- Taming the Turtle Mind
- The First $2 Million is the Toughest
- Think Like a Turtle
- Trading with an Edge
- Falling Off the Edge
- By What Measure?
- Risk and Money Management
- Turtle-Style Building Blocks
- Turtle-Style Trading: Step by Step
- Lies, Damn Lies, and Backtests
- On Solid Ground
- Bulletproof Systems
- Mastering Your Demons
Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders By Curtis Faith pdf
23 reviews for Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders
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Ray Snow (verified owner) –
Great insight.
Emilia Coleman (verified owner) –
Good read for anyone interested in trading mindset.
Aries Fuentes (verified owner) –
It was an informative read from a real world futures trader. There are a lot of pretenders in this marke, but the auther is the real deal. It is however quite technical and your readers should expect this.
In the end he offers some well known fundamental advice … that success in trading comes down to a strong trading plan and the discipline to stick with it !
Madeleine Page (verified owner) –
This book is useful in giving suggestions for creating backtest and for reinforcing the importance of trading psychology. Has anyone looked into where Curtis M. Faith is today? I did a little research and sadly it looks like in recent years he may have been effected by mental illness
Kali Mitchell (verified owner) –
Awesome
Alexia Dunlap (verified owner) –
Way too technical for a lay reader but advertised as user-friendly.
London Parks (verified owner) –
Overall the book is good read. however, the author takes you in more details about the testing methodologies and software trading instead of detailing or providing more examples on the actual turtle strategy.
This book would be best for people writing codes for their trading system and how to back-test. Not really recommended for average trader unless you want to know more about the previous subject.
Ivory Faulkner (verified owner) –
If you are looking for all the explicit rules of the Turtle Trader system, it’s in here. I have no reason to believe the author left out information or is lying. It matches with another document that I found on the internet. The author was, according to the information provided in the book, one of the more successful original Turtle Traders.
But the book goes much deeper than that. It gives you a rundown of what it is like to build, test and trade trend trading systems in the futures market. It educates you for example about the fact that in trend following system can have large drawdowns and a low win rate, yet can be successful in the long run if many futures are traded in parallel. There are other systems described in the book, with back tested equity curves from 1996 to 2006.
This book is a surprisingly honest and quality piece of work containing important nuts and bolts.
The author provides information about some of his more recent activities, which seem to have nothing to do with trading, so that’s my only red flag here. Why wouldn’t he have continued with trading? I still give it 5 stars, because I can’t really hold this against him.
Esperanza Reilly (verified owner) –
A story of making 19 million dollars in one years and losing 11 million of it in one night. It won’t teach you to currency trade, but you will enjoy the story.
Micah Ellison (verified owner) –
Probably very numbers based with computerized systems, but the key points are what matters
Let your winners run, have a SIMPLE plan, discipline. Most of these trading books say the same thing, though I did enjoy the story.
Also when it comes to systems, less is more. I do forex and I would use like 3 moving averages, RSI, blah blah. It doesn’t work. Pure price action, just two MA’s and donchian break outs have been good for me and this book used stats to actually determine that 2 is better than 3 when it came to the MA’s and trading breakouts was more profitable with the donchian. SO that was cool to see.
If you are a struggling trader, never give up. Eventually find your system, keep it simple, remain humble, and SHOW UP!
Alianna Pittman (verified owner) –
The book has a great story line to get your immediate attention. The portions that most interested me regarded the thought process for accepting a trade. I have and prefer different charts and signals than the author discusses, because I am primarily involved in Forex trading, so I only skimmed those sections. I would recommend this book, but would also suggest other similar books for more in depth understanding.
Kyson Rasmussen (verified owner) –
The book does what it sets out to do but it just wasn’t for me.
Princeton Collier (verified owner) –
this book is one of the best book for understand system trade.
Gatlin Carlson (verified owner) –
Whatever method you use for breakouts the rules for money management per trade, stops, moving up with a trend is invaluable.
Alvaro Gillespie (verified owner) –
To trade as the Turtles, you’ll need unlimited funds to trade in all stock markets worldwide, all commodities and all currencies, long and short. You’ll also need a computer system programed to track and alert you when positions should be opened, closed and added to.
Most of the “Turtle” books focus on how successful the traders were, offering little about their methods.
Kimber Wu (verified owner) –
A simple discretionary trend following strategy.
Valentino Olson (verified owner) –
Literally change my whole approach to trading great for beginners and I believe would teach veteran traders to improve their techniques
Alianna Mata (verified owner) –
Love the condition, exactly as described
Jaxon Callahan (verified owner) –
A story behind this process of investing with at least some explanation of the thought process by the trader that can help or hinder the success. I am sure the hands on training provided by the two iconic traders who initiated this training was more intense however this is a glimpse into the process.
Pablo Gillespie (verified owner) –
Curtis not the best qriter but there is a lot of data and good points for your education in Trend Following.
Eloise O’Connor (verified owner) –
There should be more statistical results. A nice story but the premise is very simple.
Gianni Castro (verified owner) –
I love the way the Turtles trade and Curtis wrote a fantastic book about the process and his mindset. I have read a lot of books that deal with Trend Following/Trading and this is one of my favorites!
Raina Pruitt (verified owner) –
This was my first book I read about trading and I have to confess this was pretty fascinating and probably the first half of the book was a definitely page turner