Curtis Faith
Curtis Faith: A Failed Turtle
The true story of Curtis Faith is not easily learned, but careful research has revealed a portrait of anything but success. Through multiple government documents, a Faith family member, other Turtles, performance records, direct interviews with Faith's former business associates, a former employee and Faith's own words - a true picture of Curtis Faith has come into view.
For example, Faith holds himself out as the most successful Turtle. The publishing house McGraw-Hill (along with editor Jeanne Glasser) holds Faith out as the most successful Turtle. However, Faith and McGraw-Hill and Jeanne Glasser are inaccurate. In fact, research shows Curtis Faith could be the least successful (by a wide margin) of the Turtle students hired by Richard Dennis. Faith has no public trading track record for the last 20 years (except for his firm Acceleration Capital which imploded; see below). However, a lack of trading success for over 20 years has not stopped Faith from promoting himself as supposedly making $31.5 million 20+ years ago for Richard Dennis. However, the only source for the $31.5 million is Faith's "word". By comparison other Turtle performance numbers, month by month, do exist (see p. 203-226 of "The Complete TurtleTrader"). The controversies with Faith all start with the Turtles. An excerpt from the book "The Complete TurtleTrader":
[Turtle Jim] DiMaria, who was only eighteen months older than [Curtis] Faith, saw everyone playing by the rules during the program except Faith. He said, "That would go to position sizing, markets traded...he was the special boy wonder. So he could do things that the rest of us couldn't. He probably doesn't realize that. Did he have special rules ahead of the game, or did he change the game and then ask if those new rules were okay?"...[Turtle] Mike Shannon connected the dots in very human terms: "Curt Faith, on the other hand, was driven by his father. His father was a Jehovah's Witness and he had to pay a tithing to the church. It was like his dad was a stage mom almost...[He] would come up and we'd look at this guy and some of their beliefs are just a little bit off the wall." Now, Mike Shannon was no angel, but his words revealed a real-world picture of the goings-on in the office. The bottom line: Given the millions Faith was trading, given the clear allocation discrepancies, given the clear discontent, this drama over allocations and extra assistance was just as much a part of being a Turtle as the rules they were taught. Shannon was sympathetic when he described the situation: "[Curtis] made no secret of it. Look, he wasn't running around giving us copies of [Jehovah's Witness brochures] or anything bizarre like that...He was pretty upfront about it. He would say, "The church I belong to and blah, blah, blah and all that." Perhaps Richard Dennis had become a father figure for the young Faith. Shannon added, "Rich really like Curt a lot."
Curtis Faith controversies have continued long after the Turtle experiment.
2006-2007 CFTC Investigation
The following two depositions describe how Curtis Faith's money management firm Acceleration Capital imploded: Deposition One and Deposition Two. Curtis Faith's then partner Plyam explains how he and Faith met, what type of trading system they used, the ownership breakdown of Acceleration Capital, Faith's background, the management fees, how much they put up to start Acceleration Capital and Faith's subsequent disappearance. Perhaps most alarming, a male employee was stealing money from Acceleration Capital to buy trips, buy cars, to pay for a gastric bypass surgery, to buy gifts for his boyfriend and to buy barbie dolls on eBay.
Curtis Faith Controversies
- Acceleration Capital Details. Firm co-founded by Curtis Faith. Firm investigated and barred by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Extensive fines to principal Yuri Plyam (2006-07).
- Acceleration Capital Investigation; 255 pages (2007).
- Acceleration Capital Investigation; 94 pages (2007).
- Acceleration Capital Investigation; 199 pages (2007).
- Curtis Faith on Acceleration Capital (2007).
- Curtis Faith on missing performance data.
- Curtis Faith discussion on Silver losses (2006).
- Curtis Faith discussion on Euro losses (2006).
- Curtis Faith discussion on Euro losses (2004).
- SEC investigation of Borealis. Firm founded by Curtis Faith (2002).
- Curtis Faith on lost millions (2004).
- Curtis Faith on solvency (2004).
- Curtis Faith on cash flow (2003).
- Story about meeting Faith from reader (2007).
- Curtis Faith on career (2007).
- Faith states starting new "airline" in 2001 (using email of curtis@galtair.com). No airline materializes.
- Faith threatens libel lawsuit over this article (PDF). He states proceeds from a winning lawsuit will go "to non-profit organizations dedicated to alternate energy research, poverty, and desease [sic]" (2007).
- Faith releases fan video advising Barack Obama (2007).
- Faith on his Jehovah's Witness beliefs.
- Faith is currently associated with a website that claims to be: "The Most Profitable Community Of Investors In The World." There is no data to support that statement. It is false.
- More on Faith.
The only objective accounting regarding Curtis Faith is found in "The Complete TurtleTrader" (Chapter 12 and Afterword of paperback edition). Consider video from Michael Covel:
