The Complete Turtle Trader

After the ‘Swan', I guess it is time to revisit another favorite animal of mine.. The 'Turtles', LOL. Previously, I had read this book twice. Precisely, it was actually once with English version while another round with simplified Chinese version. Well, both versions are good. But, I think I prefer the origin work from Michael Covel. Like I mentioned in the 'Swan', I think I am "polluted". As such, revisit turtles seems to be a good choice.

This time around, I thought I really enjoy reading it. First of all, I am having a holiday with wifey and kid. Hence, I am relaxed enough to enjoy an amazing story from the author. Those days, I think I am too serious in studying this book. At the end, the joy of reading sometimes lies with relax minded and enough of understandably stuff. With my current resources, I think I understand enough the logic and senses behind the turtles. As such, the pressure in regards to academic was totally removed during this visit. Frankly, I really enjoy it!

So, after a third time reading, what is my rating for this book? Honestly, I thought the author did well in collecting all the facts about the turtles. This is not the usual investment book where author seems to promote certain stuff to attract readers. At least, I think I saw the positive side of turtles as well as the negative side of the said group. As a conclusion, I find no reason not to rate this book at 10/10. This book was published in year end of 2007 and I grab my copy in year 2008. The facts that I already went through the whole book three times proved that I really love this book. A thoroughly great read and I highly recommend this book to any traders and book lovers.

Last but not least, some nice quotes to ponder about...

Many outstanding intelligent people are horrible traders. Average intelligence is enough. Beyond that, emotional makeup is more important.

The thing that worked best were rules. The majority of the other things that didn't work were judgments.

A good friend of mine was employed as a reporter by the largest commodity news service... One day, his major story is about the sugar... I asked, 'how do you know all of this?' I will never forget his answer; he said, 'I made it up.'

A bad month, a bad quarter, or even a bad year does not mean much in the grand scheme. The most important thing was to have a sound trading approach tested in the real world.

To add to a losing position was like being the kid who's been burned on a hot stove once already but puts his hand back on the stove just to prove it was the stove that was wrong.

It's not about the frequency of how correct you are; it's about the magnitude of how correct you are.

The market 'gurus' who pretend that a complex approach must be used to make money want the equivalent of quantum physics for trading rules. That kind of thinking is mental masturbation, or as trader Ed Seykota calls, it "math-turbation".

No matter how good you get you can always be better and that's the exciting part. ~~~ Tiger Woods

It's possible to train people to perform to a certain level... but if this training does not promote self-education and a philosophical attitude, then the trainees will be little more than performing seals.

He was always worried about 'skid'... and for a man who taught logic and the scientific method to his students, it was amazing to hear that he worried too much about arguably inconsequential issues.

Some investors probably walked away from what could be perceived as his arrogance, but many were smitten by Rabar's "take it or leave it" attitude. There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and Rabar walked it with great success.

"Rich always said that you can't pay attention to books, articles or papers. If it was worth knowing, the people will keep it for themselves and trade." ~ Jerry Parker

Just because I don't understand it doesn't mean I'm not going to bet on it.