Richard Farleigh is a well-known figure in investing circles, having made substantial money through market activity—reportedly tens of millions, perhaps more. The book under review doesn’t settle on an exact figure, but it does reveal colorful biographical details, such as his youthful ambition to be a bushranger like Ned Kelly. That image—part outlaw folklore, part unlikely role model—adds personality to Farleigh’s narrative and to the stories he tells about making a fortune in markets.
Farleigh’s public profile grew not only from his investing success but also from television appearances. He was featured on the business programme Trouble at the Top as a backer of the Home House members’ club in London and later gained wider recognition on BBC2’s Dragon’s Den. Those TV roles have helped his public image as much as his market track record.
The book, originally published in 2005 under the title Taming the Lion and later released as 100 Secret Strategies for Successful Investing, presents itself as a compact guide to making money in markets. Given the author’s approachable style and his TV-friendly persona, it’s tempting to expect flashy, bite-sized tips. But the book is less about quick tricks and more an argument for a particular investing approach shaped by Farleigh’s experience: trend-based or momentum investing.
Unlike some of the other investors who can appear brusque on television, Farleigh treats entrepreneurs with respect. That tone carries through the book. He is at his strongest when recounting personal experiences and offering pragmatic observations rather than grand, prescriptive rules.
The trend is your friend
Despite the title, the book does not actually lay out one hundred distinct, secret strategies. Much of the core advice amounts to a straightforward momentum thesis: markets are generally efficient, so rather than hunting for undervalued bargains you should follow price trends and buy assets that are already rising. Farleigh’s core points can be summarised as:
- Markets usually price assets efficiently, so “cheap” is often hard to identify reliably.
- Buy assets that are already in an upward price trend.
- Allow a trend to continue for as long as it runs—upturns can last longer than most expect.
- Prefer assets that should benefit from prevailing economic conditions.
- Exit positions if the trend reverses or the underlying economic fundamentals deteriorate.
Farleigh encourages investors to focus on big-picture shifts—changes in interest rates, technological revolutions, or significant economic developments such as China’s industrial rise—that markets may not fully price in at first. You then use a checklist to assess the landscape and, if conditions look favourable, seek investments where prices have already begun to move up. This is classic momentum or trend trading: buy what’s going up and ride the trend.
The rationale offered is that trends have a marginally better chance to continue than to reverse, and Farleigh provides anecdotes and some evidence to support that idea. He also emphasises discipline: if a trend reverses by a meaningful amount, sell rather than cling to hope.
“The way I trade, I will never have the satisfaction of getting the best price or the biggest possible profit. I always use this technique: if the fundamentals remain the same, wait for the trend to turn, before getting out of a winning position.”
But in practice, trading trends is more difficult than the rule sounds. Prices are volatile and can swing widely; short, temporary declines often look like trend reversals, and real reversals can look like temporary blips. That makes timely decision-making challenging for the momentum investor.
Temporary price falls look like reversals, and vice-versa
To illustrate the difficulty of timing trend changes, consider Anglo American, a large FTSE mining company. Since 2004 its share price has risen substantially, so anyone who identified the fundamentals early and rode the trend would have profited handsomely. Yet along the way there were several significant dips; anyone who sold after a modest fall would likely have missed later gains. In other words, reacting to every correction would have reduced long-term returns.
It’s easy in hindsight to point to the rebound after a dip and say the correct move was to hold. In real time, momentum traders must constantly judge whether price moves are noise or genuine trend changes. That is a skill that Farleigh argues is partly developed through experience—and partly luck.
Momentum strategies can work, especially when combined with a view of macro fundamentals, but they carry distinct risks. If a trend genuinely turns and you haven’t sold, losses can be severe. Farleigh acknowledges that many obvious trading edges have been arbitraged away as markets have become more efficient and more technically sophisticated.
“As I look back […], it’s clear that a lot of the ways our trading room made money have simply disappeared. The markets have become relentlessly more sophisticated… The market has evolved, like bacteria against antibiotics, to beat out opportunities.”
That evolution is why Farleigh stops short of offering a mechanical sell rule for every investor. Instead he suggests that successful trend trading demands a feel for markets that not everyone will acquire.
It’s also worth noting that Farleigh’s ability to profit from market moves has been helped by the scale at which he and his professional partners have operated. Professional managers who control large sums can amplify returns on macro calls—an advantage individual retail investors don’t usually share. For many private investors, a value-oriented approach—buying well-run companies at reasonable valuations and holding them—may be a more practical and lower-stress route to long-term success than attempting to surf short-term trends.
Aussie rules
Despite those caveats, 100 Secret Strategies for Successful Investing offers several useful chapters. Farleigh writes well about diversification, negotiation tactics, and, particularly, how to assess the quality of a small company’s management. There’s also a clear discussion of the interaction between interest rates, inflation and growth—topics that remain central to investment decisions as global economic patterns shift.
Trend setter: Richard Farleigh
In sum, this is an engaging and readable book when taken for what it is: part memoir, part practical reflection on trading and investing. If you want a lively account of how a successful investor thinks and some sensible observations about markets, you’ll enjoy it. But if you pick it up looking for a list of guaranteed “secret” rules to replicate his success, you may come away disappointed. The lessons here are best used as a complement to broader investing education rather than a standalone manual for guaranteed profit.