Jesse Livermore: World's Greatest Stock Trader

A very good read for any age. Not filled with technical trading details. It is the story about the life of a very successful person and his sad ending.

If you are a fan of Jesse Livermore and could only read one book on his trading and life, this would be the book to read. Many people tout "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator", but that book actually never details Livermore's trading system. Also, many individuals erroneously claim that "Reminiscences" detailed how J.P. Morgan personally asked Livermore to stop shorting the market during the 1929 crash, when he allegedly walked away with 100 million dollars. Since "Reminiscences" was published in 1923, this would be a neat trick. Actually, Morgan asked Livermore to stop shorting the 1907 crash, to avoid a banking crisis. Smitten has had a lifelong interest in Livermore, and personally interviewed family members, including son Paul and late son Jesse Jr.'s wife, and has studied all of the available articles and literature on Livermore. Consequently, this book contains many details unavailable from any other published work on Livermore, including more details on his trading system and personal life. This book also dispels the common myth that Livermore committed suicide after going broke for the last time. In actuality, when he died he had an irrevocable trust worth $1 million, and his wife reputedly removed about $3 million in cash and $1 million in jewelry from their apartment hours after he died. Livermore's trading skills would have always allowed him to trade himself back to significant wealth. It was his lifelong battle with clinical depression that was most likely the reason behind his suicide, not his trading results. This book's greatest significance is the detailing of his trading system and rules, which if followed today would be just as successful, indicating that as Livermore stated, nothing really ever changes in the market except the participants. In regard to Livermore's many busts as a trader, his only significant flaw as a trader was his complete lack of caution when he saw an opportunity, and consequently went "all in". When he was right, he made millions, and when he was wrong, he lost millions. This tendency was exacerbated by the illiquidity and delayed quotations/information/executions of the day in which he traded.

ROSO, of course, is the short form of the Reminiscences of a stock operator. This book had answered some, but not all, questions you might ask whilst reading ROSO. Copied from Zweig, one must finish both before working/fighting with me.

This book provides an excellent biographical portrait of one of the greatest Wall Street speculators that ever lived. This book is well researched and well written. In fact, as Livermore's life story unfolds in the book, the reader begins to feel as though they are eyewitnesses to the time. The reader gets to experience Livermore's triumphs and defeats. In the end, the reader will find that Livermore's life mirrored the stockmarket more than the life itself. This man's life ran with the bulls and the bears culminating in one big crash. Ultimately, Jesse Livermore died of lead poisoning, a fatal gunshot wound to the head. If it is one's intention to garner the "Livermore Key" to profits in the stockmarket then this is definitely not the book. While the author briefly touches on Livermore's tactics and attempts to tie it into current stocks, the information provided is rather general and somewhat vague. The reader would be better off looking elsewhere for investment advice. However, if you are truly interested in Livermore himself then you might consider it. In the final analysis, while this book is a good one it really does pale in comparison to Edward LeFevre's classic book "Reminiscence of a Stock Operator." LeFevre's book speaks to the reader while Richard Smitten's new book is more of a third person account leaving the reader as more of an observer.

Livermore is considered one of the greatest stock traders who lived: his trading secrets, techniques and stock market analysis methods are revealed here for the first time in a title which covers his astonishing financial savvy and achievements. It's worth reading about the techniques and logic of a man who entered the depression with 100 million in cash!