The Amazing
Life of Jesse Livermore:
World's Greatest Stock Trader by Richard Smitten
Wall Street never changes, the pockets change, the suckers change,
the stocks change, but Wall Street never changes, because human nature
never changes.
---Jesse Livermore
Jesse Livermore is considered by many of today’s top Wall Street
traders as the greatest trader who ever lived. For the first time, in
one book: his trading secrets, techniques and stock market methods are
revealed. Livermore broke new ground in trading the market. His timing
techniques, money management systems, and high-momentum approach to
trading in stocks and commodities was revolutionary, and remains valid
today.
Livermore ran away from home in 1891 at 14 years of age, with five
dollars in his pocket, and immediately started as a board boy in the
offices of Paine Weber. He made so much money he was banned from the
Bucket Shops of Boston and New York. He made a fortune in the crash of
1907, and later lost it, only to make it and lose it several more times.
In the panic of 1907, J.P. Morgan personally implored Livermore to
stop selling-short, stop pounding the market into oblivion. He made 3
million dollars in one day during the panic.
He married a beautiful Ziegfield Follies showgirl. They lived in a
magnificent mansion on Long Island with 14 servants and a three hundred
foot yacht anchored off the back yard that ferried him to Wall Street
every morning.
He sold the market short before the crash of 1929, and entered the
depression with 100 million in cash.
A mysterious and secret trader he worked out of a palatial penthouse,
a highly secure office-fortress on Fifth Avenue. Where he traded in
absolute secrecy. Once the market was open no one in the office was
allowed to speak until the market closed.
In 1935, Dorothy, his beautiful wife, shot their son, Jesse Livermore
Jr., in a heated, drunken argument in Santa Barbara. It was one of the
great scandals of the era.
Jesse Livermore ended his own life with a self-inflicted bullet to
the brain, ending one of the most dynamic careers in Wall Street
history. A complex genius who’s life ambition was to win on Wall
Street, and he did.
Reviews:
As one of the most shrewd traders of all time, Jesse Livermore
demonstrated how important discipline is when trading the market.
Richard Smitten's book,The Amazing Life of Jesse Livermore: World's
Greatest Stock Trader, covers how Livermore created his rules.
Successful trading is about finding the rules that work and then
sticking to those rules. Smitten's book not only covers the strategies
that Livermore used in trading the stock market, but also reveals the
lessons he learned along the way to develop those strategies.
William J. O'neil–Publisher Investor's Business Daily
After reading Richard Smitten's magnificent biography, two
Japanese proverbs came to mind, Fortune favors the bold and Darkness
Lies One Inch Ahead. Smitten shows how fortune and darkness were
integral parts of Livermore's life.
His book has the intrigue of a mystery novel and the lessons of a
trading master. What more can one ask for? I eagerly recommend this book
to anyone interested in history, the markets and trading psychology.
Steve Nison, Author of Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques
Great writing. The book is terrific. I started reading it when we
took off from Seoul's Kimpo Airport on my way to Germany. By the time we
reached Novosibirsk, Russia (five and a half hours later) I had finished
it. I just couldn't put it down! Not only is it a great lesson in
investing and trading but a fascinating psychological study of what
makes a great speculator tick. The rise and fall of a great speculator
as well as the rise and fall of his family is great reading. The fact
that it is based on interviews with the Livermore's survivors and
witnesses to the events make it even more interesting.
Mark Mobius–Managing Director–Templeton Asset Management
Excellent read! Captures the spirit and times of Jesse Livermore,
legendary trader. The book tracks two major market crashes, love
affairs, the shooting of Jesse Jr. by his mother, and two family
suicides...never a dull moment.
Ace Greenberg-Chairman Bear Stearns
It is a terrific story well told. I picked it up last night and
couldn’t put it down until I finished it early this a.m. The life and
times of Jesse Livermore, the world’s greatest trader, is an emotional
roller coaster. To witness this complex this complex man who is so
obviously intelligent, logical, disciplined and driven, repeatedly
succeed and fail in the market and marriage is an exciting yet
inexpensive way to learn some valuable lesson. If you have any interest
in Wall Street, investing, the roaring twenties or the rich and famous
of that era, you’ll love this book. Certainly today’s Momentum
Investor will find it worthwhile and perhaps even reassuring.
Richard Egan-Chairman and Founder-EMC Corporation
This book is a stock market classic! Most entertaining and
informative book on the market that I have had the privilege to read in
the last 20 years. A must-read for students of the stock market–great
even for those who have no knowledge of the market. Grabs you from the
start, and holds the reader enthralled from cover to cover. Great
book-destined to be a best seller!
Dan Sullivan–The Chartist--fund manager/investment advisor
My best comment in reading this book, is a resounding YES! First,
Dick Smitten has pulled together an incredible text on the life and
times of Jesse Livermore, and shed some light on how such a successful
speculator could become so depressed as to end his own life - something
I have always wondered about. But more importantly, this is the first
book to really explain the psychology of winning in the markets, as seen
and lived through Jesse Livermore. In my own trading, and my writing on
SignalWatch.COM, I try to live and trade by the many jewels of trading
wisdom so eloquently explained by Jesse and observers around him. I'm
tempted to start quoting them here, but you'll just have to read the
book. It's an absolutely MUST READ for anyone who is serious about
conquering the markets and - themselves.
Ed Downs-CEO Nirvana Systems-author of SignalWatch.com
This book is the standard against which all other books on the stock
market will be measured. A riveting American tragedy with more emotional
turns than a chart on the Dow, and plenty of detailed substance for the
market technician interested in uncovering the methodology of the
World’s Greatest Stock Trader..
Dennis Kranyak–member Society of Market Technicians
Worth its weight in gold! It is amazing how simple Smitten makes it
all seem. Through his research, he has been able to sift through
Livermore's complex (and up to now secret) trading techniques. He then
has been able to decipher them for all of us to easily understand and
allow us to try and trade like Jesse Livermore, if we want to. We also
get a best-seller novelroller coaster ride as we journey through
Livermore’s incredible life and times. A great feat of
writing--articulating a very complex set of formulas and a very complex
man–and its fun!
D. Gordon Badger- First Foundation Capital Canada-Founder
This is a fascinating account of the rise and fall of the greatest
stock trader ever. He knew all of the famous people of his day and saw
them all frequently but always remained a man of intriguing mystery. He
would not discuss his trades nor the secrets of his success with his
friends. Never give or take market tips, he warns in Richard Smitten’s
book. When he broke his own rules he paid heavily. My father E.F. Hutton
liked him, backed him and even lent him money twice to get started again
after he went broke. Livermore always paid it back and he always
regained his trading wealth by going back to his disciplined lone-wolf
trading methods. By the time he reached his sixties he had won and lost
so monumentally and so often that the thrill of the market’s roller
coaster ride no longer intrigued him. That was the final blow from which
he could not recover. When the excitement of beating the market was gone
as was his magic touch and his will to live. That’s the sad but
poignant lesson in this compelling book.
Dina Merrill Hartley
...A must book for every investor,
J. Michael Pinson, Senior Analyst MarketMavens.com.
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