Reviews of Taming the Lion

Here are my top 10 titles to pack for the holidays, Tom Stevenson, UK Telegraph 25/07/2006

“Taming the Lion is a book about profiting from big themes. From humble beginnings in Australia, Farleigh made a fortune following powerful trends, the most effective and least stressful route to investment success. He knows how to write too.”

“Richard lays out the many first principles he has used over 20 years to become one of Europe’s most successful investors. These are certainly words of wisdom, as they come not from a theoretical background but from real-life experiences.”

“Anyone who was able to retire at the age of 34, move to Monte Carlo and become a private investor must have made some smart investment decisions. Richard Farleigh did just that and he’s sharing his secrets in this book.”

“It is a treasure trove of investment and business secrets from this very successful man. The easy to read book takes you step by step through about 100 strategies Farleigh developed.”

“This book is excellent reading for anyone remotely interested in trading”.

Investor's Voice July 2006

“Overall I feel there is so much information in this book, it is probably one I will keep re-reading as I make investment decisions. I especially like the way it has reminded me that there are other asset classes to invest in other than shares and property and yet the same strategies are applicable”.

The Melbourne Age »
“one of the most interesting investing books I've ever read...” James Kirby, 23 April 2006.

UK Telegraph »
“Tom Stevenson has an epiphany while reading an investment book”
“This realisation hit me in a senior moment at the weekend while reading an excellent  investment book, Taming the Lion by Richard Farleigh”

Humble Money »
“Excellent reading. Very thought provoking.”
“This book has been a wake up call for my own investing.”

The London Stock Exchange has nominated Taming The Lion as Book of the Month for December 2005.

Interactive Investor »
“Mr Farleigh's book is book of the month. I took it to on a weekend of riotous celebration, riotous at least for a 40th birthday party, and still read 130 pages."

Interactive Investor »
A new book, Taming the Lion, joins One Up on Wall Street, Adventure Capitalist and The Zurich Axioms as one of a handful of works of blinding originality permanently resident on my investing bookshelf.

Trusting management is one strategy, there are 99 more in the book, but the fundamental lesson Mr Farleigh teaches, like those other great investors who spilled the beans, is that to speculate successfully we must understand why markets move.

Interactive Investor will be serialising five of the strategies in coming weeks.

The Chilli »
If you want to get underneath the mindset of one of the most successful and prolific private equity investors in high technology start-ups, than you don’t have to ponder any more. Richard Farleigh’s long awaited book, ‘Taming the Lion, 100 Secret Strategies for Investing’, reveals the underlying principles that have guided his investment strategies

Chapter by chapter, the book provides fundamental investment strategies that Farleigh has followed in an easy to understand language, without too much economic or financial jargon that would put off many non-financial readers. Many of these strategies are tested with real world examples, often revealing the negative consequences that can follow if the strategies are not adhered to properly. This makes Farleigh’s 100 secret strategies more credible and believable compared to other books on investment strategies, which tend to be more prescriptive and theoretical.

“Taming the Lion” is intertwined with Farleigh’s own reality show of private equity investments. With it is the personal touch and a cool headed logical, well argued and tested list of investment strategies, which makes this a very credible read.”

Shares Magazine

The rags-to-riches theme is a well worn literary path but Richard Farleigh’s interesting and insightful book, Taming The Lion, through which I’ve been flicking this week, is well worth a read. It reveals the ‘100 secrets strategies for trading’ that have taken him from a hobo childhood in the Aussie outback to Monaco-based millionaire.

Many so-called experts tend to be better self-marketeers than actual investors but Farleigh’s unique understanding of market psychology has made him a bundle. Farleigh deals with many important issues – risk, small companies, market timing, to name a few – but particularly fascinating, he shows that all financial markets entrench themselves in trends, and explains why big picture themes will likely persist even though such strategies have become well-known and well-used now.

Stacked with many practical hints as well as plenty of useful and interesting financial market background.

Motley Fool »
In his new book,"Taming the Lion", Farleigh outlines 100 "secret strategies".
Some of them aren't really strategies; more like axioms. But they're all interesting.

Here are my five favourites:

1. Fear the market: "Be like a lion tamer. The lion can be tamed, but only by maintaining a healthy fear of the lion."

2. The quality of a company's management is by far the most crucial factor in determining its success.
"Good management will find a way to make their product work, while poor management can mess up good products."

3. Look for the next Big Thing
Farleigh continues: "the beauty of big ideas is that you often have plenty of time to get involved."

4. Prices go further than expected.
"You will find that long after many others have sold out prematurely, you can persist, even if you are amazed by the market's subsequent performance."

5. Know when to stay out of the market.
Sometimes the best trade is not to trade at all. The fundamentals may be confusing and there is no clear trend in prices. In this situation, Farleigh reckons it's best to stay out.  ....

These aren't the only interesting axioms in the book. For example, Farleigh reckons that markets continue in their existing trend around 55% of the time, and reverse themselves in the remaining 45%.

He writes about all of this in an accessible style, so it should appeal to beginners as well as more experienced investors.

The Independent » (17 December 2005)
This seems a good moment to provide my annual list of the most interesting and instructive books about investment, for those who fancy some rewarding (though not so light) reading over Christmas…

A more lively read is a book called Taming The Lion, by Richard Farleigh (published by Harriman House). He is an Australian hailing from a poor and difficult background who went on to prosper as a hedge-fund manager. His book has a number of useful tips on how to trade and invest in the markets.

Secrets Of Success: If you want to coin it, start reading.

Financial Times » (17 December 2005)
Last week I acquired a copy of Richard Farleigh’s much acclaimed book, Taming The Lion, which includes “100 secret strategies for investing” based on his experiences as a very successful investor. I was struck by his comment: “Small companies offer more opportunities than large companies.” I have long held this view.

Investors Chronicle » (December 9, 2005)
Few of the three or four dozen 'How to Succeed in Investment' books which arrive on my desk every year get more than five minutes attention. But one that did was Taming The Lion by Richard Farleigh, who despite retiring from running a "powerful and secretive hedge fund" to Monaco at the age of 34, does not pass himself off as an investment genius. His book describes 100 investing rules, embracing every kind of investing situation from trading currencies (including "Don't day-trade anything") to investing in start-ups (an extremely thoughtful chapter). And it should equip you to avoid sapphires and anything else you know nothing about.

Motley Fool — The Best Books On Investing »
Other must reads for any budding investor include Winning The Loser's Game by Charles Ellis, and more recent titles such as The Little Book That Beats The Market and Taming The Lion.