Take a group of intelligent people, teach them a classic trend following trading system, give them some money to trade, and what do you have? One of the most fascinating trading stories ever told.

This book is an eyewitness account of the story of the Turtles, told by the most successful of the bunch. And while the book does not go into details about the story it does something better- it explains how they made money and how anyone can use their strategies to make money as well as or better than they did.

The author not only details the systems used by the turtles but also describes how systems work, why they work, the problems with system testing, and how to effectively create your own trading system.

The story of the turtles begins in chapter 2 and is continued throughout the book. Part story, part trading text book, the author has done a great job explaining how to trade well using simple systems. If the reports are correct, the author made $31 million while trading as a turtle and several turtles are still make millions managing large hedge funds using the same strategies explained in the book.

The four main points of the Turtle Class:

1. Trade With An Edge: have a positive expectation.
2. Manage Risk: control risk so you can continue to trade
3. Be Consistent: execute your plan
4. Keep it Simple: catch every trend

Think Like a Turtle
1. Trade in the present
2. Think in terms of probabilities not prediction
3. Take responsibility for your own trades.

This book belongs in every trader's library even if you do not trade using a system. But after reading the arguments for systems, I cannot imagine why anyone would do so without one, or several. This book, along with Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom
has helped me create the 3 systems that I trade. Not only has trading with systems made me more money, it has lowered my risk and helped me sleep better at night. If you want to read more of my reviews of stock trading and investment books, you can get them[...]

I first read about the turtles in Market Wizard and was excited when I saw this book. Well written book which covers what makes the author(a turtle) successful and also the turtle trading system.

This book makes you think differently about trading stocks. It follows the approach of the Turtles, a straightforward and rigid method of systems trading. This is NOT a book about INVESTING in stocks but rather about short and medium term trading futures markets.

This book would be helpful for anyone interested in learning how to or in advancing their skill in day trading, technical analysis, and systems trading, with an emphasis on the psychological factors that affect performance. Five stars!

I won't repeat what has already been said so well by the many reviewers who found incredible value in this book, as I have. I simply want to emphasise the importance of this book for its insight and valuable lessons into the psychology of trading.

I have been trading the markets now for about 6 months, and almost every day, I come back to this book in my mind and remember the lessons it taught me, including the SINGLE MOST VALUABLE FACT ABOUT TRADING: you will likely lose on MOST of your trades, yet this is essential to winning in the market!

It seems counterintuitive, especially if you have seen ads from the hypesters and hipsters who promise to give you tips that are "89% accurate" and so forth. Mr. Faith's extensive work with testing trading systems using modern computerized simulation techniques virtually proves that you cannot successfully make money with systematic trading systems unless you get in the game, stay in the game, and follow the rules of the game. This means most of your trades will LOSE MONEY, but not very much money. The few times that you do actually realize a profit will more than make up for the many times you don't, and that's the key, right there!

There's a lot more in this book, but for me, this is the biggest takeaway -- how to manage your money and follow your system so you can amass a fortune even while losing on most of your trades! How liberating is THAT concept? It's everything!

This is a review on Michael Covel's "complete turtle trader", to which I gave 1 star, albeit I wish I could give it negative five star. I believe the readers of Faith's book will be similar to those of Covel's. I wish to use this space to express my opinions on a book offered by Faith's competing author. Thanks.

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*** My honest and fair review has been deleted 8 TIMES. It is disturbing and disappointing. This surreptitious tactics has strengthened my belief that this book is of little practical use for the real traders, and could only marginally help the amateurs at best. It also makes me doubt the entire portfolio of paid trading service that Covel is offering.***

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This is a book about what could potentially be achieved, rather than how to achieve it. If you are a trader looking for the holy grail, you will be bitterly disappointed. Instead, this book gives a comprehensive recount of the original turtle experiment, with Covel's unique access to a lot of turtles.

In Chapter Five, this book does give a glimpse of the supposed trading system that the turtle used for their trades. The system is based on an extremely rudimentary short-term price breakout pattern.

System 1: If price makes new 20-day high, buy; Get out if price makes new 10-day low.

System 2: If price makes new 55-day high, buy; Get out if price makes new 10-day low.

System 3: If system 1 misses out, use system 2.

Covel claimed that it was what the turtles have been using. I, however, doubt this claim very much. Intuitively, this system is extremely short term oriented, and places stops extremely close to the entry point and thus makes it almost impossible to be profitable. My back tests have also confirmed this intuition. That said, Covel does mention that readers should not take these rules literally, and should test their systems thoroughly before actual trades.

I have also noticed from the turtles trading records that their trading returns have been in the high single digit to low double digit in the past few years. Given the world market has risen substantially in the past few years, the turtles are underperforming. Are they taking less risks, or is this an evidence that the original trading system is working less well? I suspect that the later is true, given Covel repetitively asserts that the turtles are still trading exactly the same way as they did 20 years ago.

Realistically, should one really expect to learn the secret of trading for 18 bucks? Would some one really sell the formula to make millions for such a small sum? And why doesn't Covel just trade, instead of writing for a living? It does not make common sense.

I suspect that many of us have been drawn to this title because of its false lure of disclosing the turtles' secret formula. If so, you would inevitably be disappointed. This book is nothing more than a well-written pitch book for CovelThe Complete TurtleTrader: The Legend, the Lessons, the Results's portfolio of paid services offered on his website. My disturbing experience with the deletion of my review further confirms it. Serious traders/readers should seek advice somewhere else. What you are looking for is definitely not here.

Takes a long time to get to the meat, but I suppose it is a necessary developement of understanding the meat to have this outline. Will be reading a second time.

I was soooo excited to read this book. Here is a trading legend what wants to spill the beans on how he did it, right? WRONG. This book simply rehashed old trading ideas, some are very old, that have been done in other forums and books over the years. He plugged his own software so many times that the book read like an advertisement for his it.

I found it interesting that he did not reveal anything that was going on with his current trading. I've heard all of the stories of the Turtle days; show me what you have done since. Tell me about the big trends you hit in the 1990's and earlier this decade. That would be fantastic - but he didn't. It would have added substance to the book.

Instead the author tells you he hasn't traded since the 1980s and has worked on other adventures. I find this hard to believe. How can the most successful trader of the Turtle class not trade? You have been given the gift of a wonderful education by Richard Dennis and you don't use it? Come on - this is too much to believe. Certainly you have traded right?

It was disappointing to say the least. A book written for a publishing advance is my opinion. It could have been much better. The author could have included details on the behind the scenes. Faith had access to the most noted trader in Chicago. Talk about what he was like and what the office was like. Talk about trades you have made since the 1980s and talk about the profits you made for other customers - not just Dennis - since the experiment was over. This would make the book better.

Provide more details on what you did with the information and how it changed your life. What is what the title implies 'Way of the Turtle'. The book is nothing more than a technical indicator book, something we have all done and seen many times before. I was very disappointed.

I struggled with giving one or two stars on this one. Part of me feels he deserves one star because the book was soooo bad. However, I posted two stars. He is a new author so I won't penalize him for so many oversights on the first attempt. Call it grading on the curve.

An interesting text from a historical perspective, but light on the implementation details if that is what you are looking for.

Faith has taken some flack of late from guys like Michael Covel, but he is an extremely sharp guy and the book is full of valuable insights. If you're a mechanical systems trader it's required reading.

Well thought out, logically presented, well reasoned arguments provide development methods and set realistic expectations for the aspiring or veteran systems trader.

This is an important book because unlike the dozens of other trading books I have read this one delves into the most important aspect of trading, psychology. You can't trade if you can't attune your mind to the mental requirements of trading. I have seen other traders make reference to emotional state management etc... but Curtis really goes into all the psychological issues that most people struggle against when trying to trade successfully, recommended.

I did learn much useful background information from the many reviews here so first of all I got to thank them all. Neverless, they did make my writing of this harder, which showed that I am a bad trader easily influenced by others. I dare not write much. So, in a nutshell, if you want to learn more about the legendary Turtles or you want to read a good trading psychology book, this is for you. If you want to learn and profit from how the Turtles trade, you will be disappointed.

p.s. Below please find my favorite passages for your reference.

Traders care about price; essentially they buy and sell risk. pg2

People rarely make completely rational decisions. Successful traders understand this tendency and benefit from it. They know that someone else's errors in judgement are opportunities, and good traders understand how those errors manifest themselves in market price action: The Turtles knew this. pg 14

A Turtle never tries to predict market direction but instead looks for indications that a market is in a particular state. pg 27

The lessons of the Turtle Class can be summed up in these four points: 1. Trade with an Edge. 2. Manage Risk 3. Be consistent 4. Keep it Simple pg 39

Turtles do not care about being right. They care about making money. pg 48

When you expect a trade to lose money, you also realize that the outcome of a particular trade does not indicate anything about your intelligence. Simply put, to win you need to free yourself and your thinking of outcome bias. pg 48

Turtles dos and donts: 1. Trade in the present 2. Think in terms of probabilities, not prediction 3. Take responsibility for your own trades pg 60

The ego wants to be right, it wants to predict, and it wants to know secrets. The ego makes it much more difficult to trade well by avoiding the cognitive biases (loss aversion, sunk cost effect, disposition effect, outcome bias, belief in the law of small numbers.......that hinder profits. pg225

Most people believe that as we get older it gets harder to learn, that our brains change somehow. They point to children and how quickly they learn to speak a new language....I believe the big difference is that kids are not afraid of sounding foolish or of making mistakes in grammar and pronounciation while adults are terrified of this. pg 239

A trader knows not to hide from reality. She knows that when the market indicates that a trade is not working, that is not the time to hope for a change, wish that things were different, or pretend that reality is different; it is the time to exit the trade. pg 241

Well-written and very good review of "anatomy" of mechanical trading systems and how to evaluate those.

However, the specific "turtle systems" described are most likely outdated trading methodology and do not work in today's market environment (if findings on http://www.trades4u.com/en/resources are correct).

Nevertherless, overall interesting read.

If the term 'Turtles' has you scratching your head, then I will start by saying that they were a group of students brought together by legendary trader Richard Dennis (featured in Market Wizards) in the mid-1980s as part of an experiment to see if successful trading could be taught. Dennis and his partner William Eckhardt (featured in The New Market Wizards) selected two classes and taught them their trend following methodology, then provided each with trading capital and set them loose on the markets.

Way of the Turtle is less a history lesson about the Turtles (for that you can read The Complete Turtle Trader), and more a deeper discussion of the philosophy behind the trend following methodology Dennis and Eckhardt taught them and the implementation of that system. The Turtle system has been published in other formats and other places before now, but Faith does more than that in Way of the Turtle. He talks considerably about the requirements for successfully implementing the system and how easy it is to fail with it.

To my mind, Way of the Turtle is a book of three primary parts. One is a really interesting discussion of the psychology of traders and the markets. Another is a very thorough exploration of system development, testing, and performance measurement. The final part is specific discussions of the Turtles and their methods.

The issue some readers might have is the manner of presentation of the parts.

I personally found the chapters on system design, testing, and evalutation to be the most unified and consistently coherent of the book. They progress well and present some things that I have not previously seen in comparable discussions. I found Faith's coverage of the material to be an excellent advancement into somewhat more complex approaches for one who has a decent basic grounding. His discussion of the subject is, to my mind, a virtual must read for anyone look to develop and/or evaluate trading systems.

In terms of trader and market psychology, the early chapters of the book are an outstanding exposition on the different biases and mental states that we all go through as market participants in one fashion or another. It was this material, so plainly laid out, which got me very excited to be reading the book. It really is a fantastic look at the things we have in our heads which can create so much havoc in our trading, and Faith frequently cites examples of these things through the remainder of the book in talking about his and other Turtles' successes and failures trading their system.

It's in the third subject of the book where many readers may find it lacking. Way of the Turtle, as I noted at the outset, is not a history. While Faith does clearly deliniate the full Turtle system he spends relatively little time talking about the grand experiment which the Turtles were meant to be. Rather he provides views and opinions from his own perspective. Necessarily, that makes for a narrow scope. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. One just needs to realize that going in and be prepared to find it in little bits scattered throughout the text.

Here's the biggest rub - at least for someone expecting to come away with an immediately useful trading system. Even though the book does tell you exactly how the Turtle system worked, don't expect it to be something you can use yourself. It was specifically designed for use across an array of markets by traders with a large capital base. By that I mean hundreds of thousands of dollars, minimum. As such, the vast majority of readers will not be in a position to make use of it.

So it's a question of expectations. Are you looking to become a new Turtle and trade just like them? If so, you're probably going to be disappointed. If, however, you are looking to learn from the experience and education of someone who was there, who learned a great many lessons under the tutelage of a pair of legendary traders, then you will probably come away from reading Way of the Turtle quite satisfied.

This book was written by one of the original turtles, a legendary group of everday people assembled by Richard Dennis a master trader in 1983. The author Curtis Faith was the most successful of the group making millions for Dennis. Faith's key to success was his discipline in following the rules of the trading system he was given and not his own opinions.
You will learn everything you need to know from this book to be a successfull trader. He explains the different types of traders, trend followeing, counter trend trading, swing trading, and day trading. He also warns that his style of trend following may not be for you. (Trend followers make the majority of their money in just a few trades a year, and sometimes go months or even a year with out profits and have major draw downs in equity. He explains the different types of markets, stable and quiet, stable and volatile, trending and quiet, and trending and volatile and explains the importance of system testing to see how well your system will work in each one.
This book will reveal to you the original turtle trading methods. You will learn the importance of which markets to trade in. The importance of position sizing to manage risk. You will learn the two systems that the turtles used for entries based on 20 day or 55 day break outs to the upside or downside, then how to exit based on 10 day highs or lows. You will learn where to place your stops based on the daily range of the market you are trading. He will show you how to properly exit a winning trade so you catch the majority of the huge trend. You will also see the importance of using limit orders vs. market orders.
The author suggest creating your own system based on your temperment and the importance of backtesting it. If you would like to learn all the basics of trading, buy this book. Will you have the discipline to follow your own trading systems?

its all about the system in trading. so many traders keep relying on gut feeling and such. a proven system is what its all about. The turtles had it and have it.

The best books written on how to trade the financial markets are written by the authors that have themselves done well: William O'Neil, Jesse Livermore, Nicholas Darvas, Bill Gross, Jim Rodgers, Larry Williams, etc.

Like those before him, Curtis Faith has contributed comparable peice of work through the book "Way of the Turtle". He has done a great job in helping educate his readership on how discipline and personal accountability can pay off.

The author explores several concepts with a distict flavor that I have not been able to read elsewhere: the science of risk management, Developing the right expectations through studying market behavior, and trading according to your psycological disposition.

One of the concepts that I wished that the author explore was that of the carrying and opportunity costs of tying up cash devoted to some of the systems that have low frequency/high duration trades (i.e., the dual and triple MA systems) as opposed to the high frequency/low duration trade systems.

If you were left wanting after reading the "Turtle" chapters in the "Market Wizards" books, look no further.

The best books written on how to trade the financial markets are written by the authors that have themselves done well: William O'Neil, Jesse Livermore, Nicholas Darvas, Bill Gross, Jim Rodgers, Larry Williams, etc.

Like those before him, Curtis Faith has contributed comparable peice of work through the book "Way of the Turtle". He has done a great job in helping educate his readership on how discipline and personal accountability can pay off.

The author explores several concepts with a distict flavor that I have not been able to read elsewhere: the science of risk management, Developing the right expectations through studying market behavior, and trading according to your psycological disposition.

One of the concepts that I wished that the author explore was that of the carrying and opportunity costs of tying up cash devoted to some of the systems that have low frequency/high duration trades (i.e., the dual and triple MA systems) as opposed to the high frequency/low duration trade systems.

If you were left wanting after reading the "Turtle" chapters in the "Market Wizards" books, look no further.

I don't really know how to rate this book, especially after reading
a number of reviews. A lot of reviewers sound much too pollyanish
to me. I gave it 3 stars because I wanted to learn something about the
Turtle trading system and the history of the Turtles, and I did.
But, I am troubled by someone's comment that Richard Dennis stopped
trading after suffering massive losses and that Curtis Faith seems
to have lost all of his capital. Now, there is an interesting story
that I would love to read! Maybe, regarding the author, it's one thing to trade with somebody else's money, when you are not risking your own, but another when your own capital is on the line and the stakes and pressure are so much greater. Something to think about when trying to evaluate this book and author's ability.

the value in this book isn't that it teaches you the turtle's trading strategy, but instead it's that it pounds into the reader's head that one must backtest (correctly!) any strategy that one plans on following before one actually trades. he supplies an excellent discussion of the pitfalls of backtesting - which is worth it's weight in platinum.

This book is an excellent resource for a trader looking to make the leap from unsuccessful to successful trader. It is packed with real world, usable information from a legendary trader. If it didn't turn into a commercial for his "TradingBlox" company toward the end of the book, I would have to say it was the best book ever written on trading. Even so, if you are looking to learn the elements of a succesful trading system, you need to buy this book and spend some quality time digesting it... it's worth every penny and thensome.

This trading-room memoir harks back to a group of novices whom experts recruited in the 1980s and - to fulfill a bet - trained to be traders. The training worked, according to the most successful student, author Curtis M. Faith. His memoir promises what any capitalist would love to possess: the secret to making money in volatile markets. Alas, Faith tells us, there is no secret. Successful traders analyze markets to find an edge, then remain disciplined enough to pursue that edge, even when their hearts and their guts try to overrule their brains. In spite of constant references to Donchian channels and Sharpe ratios, Faith assures readers that trading isn't a matter of using secret formulas but of applying time-tested wisdom. His tome is intriguing because it lets you inside the thoughts of someone who made $30 million as a trader (so no wonder he tends toward the self-congratulatory, though his anecdotes are entertaining). We recommend this to traders seeking an advantage and to those who want to watch the experts try to beat the odds.

The reviews would have you believe that this book is a great tutorial on trading. It's not. Instead, I found it to be jargon filled, difficult to understand, and internally inconsistent. Save your money.

I rarely like to trade against the market, but if the reviews on this board are the market, then I'm short. Like most of the reviews here, I was lured into buying this book primarily by the mystic surrounding the Turtles. Now, as far as my curiosity about how that 1980s bet began and played out, I was not disappointed. Faith spars no ink on letting the reader into how the Turtles were formed and what is was like trading within the group. What was missing, I thought, was anything approaching the hype. Faith gives short srift to some of the actual trades made, instead choosing to focus on general requirements that might have not been common then, but are standard practice for today's active commodities trader. Perhaps that statement is proof of just how successful the bet was. If so, praise be to the Turtles -- but this doesn't make the book worth the time or the money.

Easy to read and captivating for those interested in the trading "lore." Also provides simplistic insight into systematic trading - not bad for those just getting into the game.

This book is the real deal. No hype or BS. Very refreshing to finally see the real turtle rules explained in context by someone who lived them. In a market full of books by posers this book shines.

This book has what all the other trend following books don't: A deep understanding of trading as a game of risk and clear thinking. The most valuable and enjoyable features of this excellent book is the clarity of the ideas expressed. This is only possible from someone who deeply understands them. Reading this book was a pleasure (except for the self involved foreword by Van Tharp).

This book is the real deal. No hype or BS. Very refreshing to finally see the real turtle rules explained in context by someone who lived them. In a market full of books by posers this book shines.

This book was supposed to teach you the way the turtle traders made millions, this book has some basic trading strategies that you can find in any other trading basics book. Jim Cramer's books teach you much more than this one, dont waste your money.

In the early to mid 80s a group of traders led by Richard Dennis became legendary for making millions trading commodities. Known as Turtles and surrounded by a level of mystery these traders, who had been trained by Dennis and his friend Bill Eckhardt, produced returns ranging from impressive to phenomenal over the course of several years. Since that time there has been a fair amount of speculation as to how they did it, and attempts have been made to duplicate their system without really understanding it. Now, however, Curtis Faith, the youngest and most successful of the original Turtles, has laid out the methods of the Turtles in this book.

I enjoyed this book very much and found much of value in it, but I think it's important to point out that it contains no real groundbreaking information. There's no magical system revealed here--nothing that will cause a monumental difference in your trading and really very little that hasn't been said before. The subtitle of the book, "The Secret Mehtods that Turned Ordinary People Into Legendary Traders," is a bit misleading in that respect. Don't approach this book expecting any such secret method--you'll be disappointed.

What you will find in the book is an excellent discussion of risk management, position size, trading systems, and discipline (among other things). Faith is a program trader, and the bulk of this book deals with how to set up, backtest, and implement a program trading system. That's not to say it won't be helpful to discretionary traders, however, but realize that most of what Faith has to say has to do with finding the ideal system to trade.

Although I'm a discretionary trader I was able to find quite a bit of useful information here. There are some great lessons--keep things simple, stick to your discipline, realize that it often takes a lot of small losses to get a big win, and don't let your biases and assumptions get in the way of your trading. If you're going to trade a system or market trade it ALWAYS, because if you miss a huge move you could miss out on many of your profits for the year. Faith also lays out some methods for determining position size and for managing your risk which, properly adapted, could prove very useful.

Again, most of what Faith says is not terribly original, but his insight is nonetheless very good, and he points out over and over again that faithfully following your system is much more important than having the most complex method out there. There are a few Turtle anecdotes peppered throughout the discussion, but this is far from being a definitive account of the Turtles or an exhaustive look into their methods. Instead this book is an insight into Turtle philosophy from the most successful Turtle, and a very worthwhile discussion on trading.

Anyone who can make $31 million profit in the market in 4 years has my FULL ATTENTION! :) This book is written by the youngest and most profitable of the legendary Turtles. His main point is find a profitable trading system and stick with it. The only thing he did differently and the only reason he succeeded and the other Turtles were less profitable was because he stuck with the system through thick and thin and reacted to all the buy / sell signals from the system, risked the right amount of money, did EXACTLY what the system told him he should do.

I have one question. How do you know when the system stops working? To continue using a system which stopped working would be financially disasterous.

This book is great for what it is. It has a lot of great information in the interviews but will not turn you into a master turtle trader tomorrow. It is a great beginning if you are willing to put in the time and effort though.

Here are some of the key reasons why this book is simply a poorly written/edited and ineffective trading book:

1. Chapters do not build on one another. The story goes back and forth, between hazy descriptions of technical trading tools, bizarre charts poorly explained, then back to the Turtles story, including amazement about how not every turtle could follow the rules except the author. Back and forth. Back and forth.

2. Anecdotal wisdom. Stuff you see in every book, from every investor/trader. Don't follow the herd. Know yourself. Forget about the past. You can't predict the future. Don't let past losses upset you. Is the author getting paid by the cliche?

3. Author references his own websites and company, and also heavily references the author with the 'big' blurb on the front cover. That would be Van K. Tharp who calls this "One of the five best trading books ever written". There is no corelation between this quote and the author citing Van Tharp throughout the entire book. I would like to see a chart on those probabilities in this book.

4. Misleading and contradictory title. Throughout the book, the author presses on the point that there is no secret method, that people want to believe a secret method exists because then they wouldn't have to admit to themselves that they psychologically do not have the capacity to trade effectively. Then the book is titled "The Secret Methods..." I guess that kind of title sells better.

Also on contraditions - there are no methods in this book. Just general descriptions of basic technical trading tools that one can find by googling the subject. The worst part is that the descriptions aren't even fully developed. The examples are weak, and the 'gestalt' of using multiple technical trading techniques collaboratively, as a system, is not covered adequately.

5. Book is not practical. The examples and the methods used by the author to trade do not fit 99.99% of all investor profiles. In fact, they only fit the profile of someone who can afford to lose a rich person's money as part of a social experiment.

In conclusion, I would say that the main problem with this book is its focus. If the book was biographical in nature, and covered the interactions and emotions on the floor with the other Turtles, and covered specifically the psychological aspects and nothing else, it could be a somewhat interesting read. As an investment book, it does not work, and is aggravating.

This book doesn't reveal any secret of the turtle tradings. In fact, it doesn't even give you examples of why they entered a trade, why they held it for how long, and why they sold the position. Nothing in substance is found in this book. You can find a lot of general ideas you've heard on this book.

It's a very interesting read to find out how the turtles were raised to trade millions. What makes it more interesting is that it has been a secret all these years. This book gives you a very good look the read hard-core trading system and it's users. It makes you think your own trading and system and helps figure out new ideas. However, the turtle system is not for all like it is stated in the book. You should have $100,000 trading account at minimum to try this out and it doesn't guarantee that you would succeed. So for the small scale traders this system is not applicable. It is also mentioned that not all people have the attitude and mindset to strictly follow the rules, which is really needed for the system to work. I would recommend this book for all who are into trading, but with the reservation it might not make you a succesful trader. But then, what book could?

If you are looking for a high-level book on trading with a basis in personal experience, this is a great choice. If, however, you are looking for a book describing the mechanics of trading or one which focuses on developing trading systems -- this is not the book for you.

Personally I enjoyed the author's style and outlook on trading in general. I think he did a great job in focusing on the importance of building a trading system which has an edge (proven ability to beat the market) and the personal discipline to be able to trade that system.

Mix in the fascinating stories about the turtles and you have a great read for novices and masters alike.

This wonderful book is not just an historical oddity of the "Turtles" of Richard Dennis.

Needless to say, it is 100,000^(googolplex) better that Michael Cover (the Turtle rip-off artist) books.

Curtis Faith's wonderful narrative of his own life and his acquisition of the techniques, and his observations of his classmates (the other "Turtles"), makes for interesting reading. His explication of the techniques they used will be considered dated or sometimes obvious nowadays, but it is fascinating reading nonetheless.

Possibly the best section that has the most current relevance is how key stop loss is for trend following.

A welcome addition to any trader's bookshelf. Thoroughly enjoyable, accurate, insightful, valuable, and entertaining.

This is the book I wish I'd had as a beginner. It is the best practical summary of systematic trend trading currently in print, and I think I have read them all. If you plan to be a long term trend follower with aspirations of triple digit returns, but don't have an account well into 6 figures or the psychological ability to ride out 50+% drawdowns, you'd better buy this book now.

Disclaimer: I met the author and have found him to be an honest guy, but have no financial affilation with him.

I've got a lot from other's reviews in the past, so thought I should contribute my bit. So here goes.

The original complete Turtle trading rules are the LAST chapter of this book, which tells you something, though the skeleton is given early and key concepts are introduced throughout the book. Faith acknowledges the Turtle rules were relatively simple and,while obviously extremely successful in the right hands, could be significantly improved on or beaten in performance by other approaches. Whether these rules would be similarly successful today is not covered and up to you to find out. So, if you are looking for a simple paint it by numbers path to riches, firstly you are kidding yourself and secondly you would be misguided if you thought you had found it with this book.

The book gives a good insight and backgound to the psychology of trading and I think it makes pretty clear why Faith was the best of the turtle traders. It has some useful stuff on expectations of system and trading performance in different market states. Plus discussion on diversification accross markets and position sizing relative to market volatility. Most of that is from a futures market perspective, but the concepts are of some value for stock traders also, in my view.

A lot of the book considers system testing and measures, particularly the statistical uncertainty and testing biases and flaws involved and how easy it is to kid yourself - to get much poorer actual performance than testing would indicate and to cop a much bigger drawdown than you thought possible. The book points out that the reality is much harder to cope with than you will probably have thought, when you started trading a system with an expected 30% drawdown! I had thought I would not be particularly interested in all this, as I am a stock trader, particularly in small caps, but it is written in a very accessible way and I found that what could otherwise be very dry and detailed material was an interesting and easy enough read with good insights.

I've traded full time for three years and have been involved in smallish scale share investing on my own behalf for over twenty. If you are not interested in system testing and performance measures then there is a good chunk of the book that you will probably think you are not interested in, but I'd suggest that you are asking for trouble by not being interested in at least performance measures! I got more out of those sections than I expected.

Overall I think the book gives good insights into the how of the success of the Turtles approach, though often by reading between the lines and recognising the applicability of the broader lessons to what the Turtles were doing. The simple is less simple than it would appear. It gives good insights into what it takes to be successful as an individual trader, with these insights often popping up in unexpected places through the book and by interesting and real anecdotes in many cases. It gives some good references for follow up reading.

If you expect miracles for a few bucks, then go read the Tales of Narnia. But IMHO there's more good advice in this than you should expect for the price of a book, particularly one as accessible as this. If you don't get it straight away, have a look at some of the other references, I'd say particularly Elder and Van Tharp, have a go at trading for a bit, then have another look at Curtis. On the other hand, if you have been trading for years, you may still find something valuable here and a pretty enjoyable read related to a bit of trading history.

Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom

Trading for a Living: Psychology, Trading Tactics, Money Management

This is a very good book for system traders. It deals with various aspects of system trading and also explains in detail the discipline necessary for sticking with a system.

This book is a must for any serious trader whether professional or a new comer.

Great read, very good thoughts on optimization and Monte Carlo simulations.. something I've been thinking of but couldn't formulate my thoughts on a subject, Curtis with huge experience does it well. Very good read on Turtle's story and some of his personal experiences with the class, life lessons learned and trading lessons. Curtis doesn't go to explain the basics of trading in this book, so if you dont know them yet, this book will not be clear for you.However, there's more to it than just a trading technique being explained that they used in the Turtles class, its all about one young man's dream to become a great profitable trader, which he did and showed once again with the help of Richard Dennis that it IS possible to trade successfully.

Don't look any further if you want to understand the
rules, tools, and psychology of Turtle trading. Curtis
Faith captures all in Way of the Turtle, which is one
of the finest books on trading available. Van Tharp
wasn't kidding when he called the book "one of the five
best books on trading ever written." Boy howdy...
he wasn't fooling!



From the fly-on-the-wall retelling of how the
Turtles came to be - a story the reclusive Richard
Dennis hasn't told in full even yet - to the blow-by-
blow detail of the trades made famous by the Turtles,
this is THE definitive book on what the Turtles were
about and their methods. And not only is it written
by one of the Turtles, its author was the top-earning
Turtle during his time with Dennis.



The chapters on trading psychology are the jewel
in the crown: insightful and applicable - probably
why Van Tharp has such a high opinion of this book.
Van, an author himself, is one of the leading gurus
in trading psychology. (Van's recent book, the second
edition of Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom, is
also a must-read for anyone serious about trading,
in my opinion.)


Finally, from the horse's mouth comes the story and
techniques of the long-secretive Turtles. There are lots
of imitators out there who think they know why the Turtles
succeeded -- Curtis can tell you why.

This is the ultimate book on Turtle trading (and trend
following for that matter). I said it before and I'll
say it again:

Don't look any further than Way of the Turtle. There's no need.

The book was philisophical,theoretical, and with little practical value. I was quite disappointed.

This book provides excellent insight into the trading system that made the Turtles into investing legends. While much of the book centers around technical trade analysis and investor psychology, there are also very interesting segments concerning the day to day activities of the famous investing group. I was impressed that the author didn't use the book as a means to ram his own trading system down our throats. His main point is that each investor should look for a system that is a good match for his or her trading psychology, develop and test that system, and exercise the discipline to follow the system. If you aren't willing to do that, stick with mutual funds or professional money managers.
As a person with little skill in complex math, I found myself to be confused every now and then, but not so much as to make this book a waste of time.

If you're going to buy a book on turtle trading you might as well do it from someone who was a turtle! Very enjoyable reading. Thanks Curtis.

I wish I had paid more attention to the negative reviews before I bought the book. Although this book does give the Turtle system, that is about all it does. Mostly it is just filler without substance. I think the only people who gain from this book are relatively new traders. For those who are not new to trading but who are interested in the Turtle System, just download the system from the 'net and skip the book. I can almost guarantee that you will learn nothing from the rest of the book. The book is an embarrassment.

I bought this book and couldn't wait until it
arrived. I tore into it to find out the "Way of
the Turtle" or the religion of Turtle Trading. I
expected the author to uncover how he used the
Turtle Way in his trading and personal life.
Perhaps talk about the lessons learned from his
tech-company going belly up, and his failings in
trading, and business in general. Certainly the
discipline taught by Dennis and Eckhardt should
have better prepared him mentally to avoid the
large scale failures he has endured in his life?

What I found instead was a boring assembly of
trading descriptions that really had nothing to
do with the "Way of the Turtle" or Curtis Faith
in general. It was a poor attempt to be
everything to everyone. He very rarely stayed on
one topic, and scattered around trading ideas
while providing little tangible insight. Oddly,
he did not mention any of the other traders in
his Turtle class. A "reveal all book" would
certainly mention the other students in his class
- seeing that some of them have become Wall
Street's greatest traders!

Recently Faith revealed (on YouTube) that he lost
all of his trading capital. So I am confused. I
bought this book to see in depth about who the
"most successful" Turtle was only later to hear
him confess that he lost all of his trading
capital. Which is it? Are you the great trader
that you claim to be or did you lose all of your
money? After reading this book I am convinced
that the author has probably not traded in years.

This is a bargain basket book inside of 2 years -
don't waste your time or money.

I have to agree with Van K. Tharp's assessment of this book (quoted in the title of this review). Of the 200 odd trading related books I've read so far, this is by far the best. It gives you all the essential information required to become a successful trader in a clear, concise, and entertaining manner.

This book is a must own! Curtis Faith was one of the original Turtles and gives some really great, practical advice. The Turtles were believers in taking large positions, in breakouts, and riding their winners until the trend changes direction; not getting caught up in the day to day "noise." I have been trading since 1998 and have many financial trading books, I would put this in my top 10 without a doubt. The advice given is worth 5 times the purchase price.

This book covers the history of the Turtle program, which my review will not go into. Even if you have no idea what that is, this is a book you should read.

From a pure investing perspective, the author covers exactly how they traded profitably over a long period. Entries, exits, position sizes, several ways to find trending prices, and how to evaluate methods that you discover on your own or from other sources. He does cover specific methods to find price entry and exit points that you could trade with, as well as how you might find meaningful ways that you might want to -- and more impoertantly should NOT -- use to improve on these methods. The methods presented cover multiple financial markets -- not just stocks.

He also covers why different people given the exact same trading rules achieved different results. I found that part as interesting as the rest.

Now a note to the current and former gamblers - blackjack players, poker players, etc... If know all the fundamentals of money management from your gambling endeavors, he covers very well how to apply those over to your trading activities.

The cover reads along the lines of "one of the 5 best investment books ever written" and that comment gets a lot of flack. I don't know if it's top 5. But it's definitely a top tier book worth of reading.

Given what I learned in this book, I am prepared to finalize my trading method and put what I have learned to work in the market.

If you are looking for a gift for an investor/trader, this would be an excellent pick.

there is a PDF file on line where Tutrles discussed the program and how it worked and the methods they used. The book is an extension of that file and while it brings some additonal topic the majority of the materials are already reflected in the PDF file. It is a good read and you will take something out of it, it's just that I do not think it will go down in trading books hall of fame.

I have traded for a number of years. Beyond sofistication, I found simplicity. This book clearly reflects that simplicity. Thank you for sharing your thoughts Curtis!