Just like "Trading Places"

I keep referring back to "The Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods That Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders" book, but it has really got me excited.

I think I need to explain why it is called, "The way of the turtle". Anyone who remembers the movie, "Trading Places", with Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd will remember that the story started when two businessmen made a wager about whether business success was an inborn talent or could be taught. The turtle story is similar.

Two trading gurus, Richard Dennis and William Eckhardt, were arguing about whether trading was a natural talent or whether it could be taught. To find out they (guess what?, that's right!) had a wager. They would put out adverts looking for a group of 23 people that they would interview and choose from to be their trainee traders. They would then give them 2 weeks training and then let them trade using their money. The group were known as the turtles and they were very successful, in fact legendary.

In the book "The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America's Top Traders", there is a chapter called, "The Silence of the Turtles". One of the turtles is interviewed but he says very little. All the turtles were under secrecy and non-disclosure contracts and so had to keep quiet.
With the contract period over, Curtis Faith, one of the most successful and youngest (19 at the time) turtles, now explains their methods and philosophy.

It is really worth a read, just for the parts about Behavioural Finance.

The differences between financial markets trading and bet trading are not so great, other than the amounts of money on the table and so reading this book really is a benefit.