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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
Very strong start, it was interesting to read about beginnings of US stock market. It shown how the stock market always favoured the financial institutions (e.g. bucket shops) but never the individual. Book has many lessons about finance, investing and human psychology.
But as book progressed it became very repetitive and new lessons learnt became scarce and very far in-between. Should the book were bit shorter, would be a strong 3 or even a 4.
But as book progressed it became very repetitive and new lessons learnt became scarce and very far in-between. Should the book were bit shorter, would be a strong 3 or even a 4.
informative
slow-paced
informative
slow-paced
I’ve read this book three times this year. It’s full of stock market strategies from the first third of the 20th century, and they’re just as applicable today. The advice comes from about Jessie Livermore, re-named Larry Livingston in Edwin Lefevre’s series of magazine installments in 1923. Jessie Livermore said it himself a hundred years ago: investing doesn’t change because people don’t change. All the same rules still apply. The same chart patters repeat themselves forever. This book is timeless.
This book is a marvel. It's well written. It clings very closely to the trade of a speculator, and barely touches on any personal life. For example, we only learn that the narrator has a wife when someone tries to use her to hook him into a stock manipulation. Everything focuses on the markets, and how the narrator interacts with the markets.
The technology, and the law, have changed enormously. But one of the central points of the book is that fear, greed, hope and ignorance will drive the markets for as long as humans make trading decisions. It's true that the advent of computerized trading robots may take those emotions out of some trading nowadays, and may lead to problems of their own. But those factors still weigh as heavily on the markets as they did at that time. And I don't think I've ever read a better explanation of how each of those things can impact trading decisions and price movements.
As with many memoirs, the beginning is the most electric, and has the most personal interest. Here, we start with his experience in totally unregulated "bucket shops," where the businesses operate on extremely high margin, and actively take positions against their customers to fleece them. People still accuse some online brokerage houses of working the same way. And the explanation of those mechanics showed me, for the first time, how it might still be possible (though much more sophisticated nowadays).
Even more extraordinary, given the feeling of authenticity throughout this book, is that it is a fictionalized account. Lefevre was a journalist. Apparently, he spent a few months with one of the leading speculators of the day. He talked with him, got to know him, and interviewed him extensively. The book is a distillation of that experience and those interviews. More than anything else, I think this book captures the mindset of a trader, and that is why it is still so admired. It's well worth reading for anyone interested in trading, or generally in Wall Street.
The technology, and the law, have changed enormously. But one of the central points of the book is that fear, greed, hope and ignorance will drive the markets for as long as humans make trading decisions. It's true that the advent of computerized trading robots may take those emotions out of some trading nowadays, and may lead to problems of their own. But those factors still weigh as heavily on the markets as they did at that time. And I don't think I've ever read a better explanation of how each of those things can impact trading decisions and price movements.
As with many memoirs, the beginning is the most electric, and has the most personal interest. Here, we start with his experience in totally unregulated "bucket shops," where the businesses operate on extremely high margin, and actively take positions against their customers to fleece them. People still accuse some online brokerage houses of working the same way. And the explanation of those mechanics showed me, for the first time, how it might still be possible (though much more sophisticated nowadays).
Even more extraordinary, given the feeling of authenticity throughout this book, is that it is a fictionalized account. Lefevre was a journalist. Apparently, he spent a few months with one of the leading speculators of the day. He talked with him, got to know him, and interviewed him extensively. The book is a distillation of that experience and those interviews. More than anything else, I think this book captures the mindset of a trader, and that is why it is still so admired. It's well worth reading for anyone interested in trading, or generally in Wall Street.
Probably one of the best books I've read about trading. Highly recommended for those interested in trading.
Most of the book is vaguely chronological ramblings about how to make (and lose) money day trading stocks in the 1910s by performing market manipulation.
Interesting book given it was published in 1923, and most of the written English is easy enough to understand, albeit financial markets are very different to how they were then and so some of the terminology/trading strategies seem alien.
Best quote is on the last page:
"There is no asphalt boulevard to success in Wall Street or anywhere else. Why additionally block traffic?"
Interesting book given it was published in 1923, and most of the written English is easy enough to understand, albeit financial markets are very different to how they were then and so some of the terminology/trading strategies seem alien.
Best quote is on the last page:
"There is no asphalt boulevard to success in Wall Street or anywhere else. Why additionally block traffic?"
A fascinating read, describing the early life of Jesse Livermore and how he became a name on Wall Street, along with a peek into the stock and commodities markets of the early twentieth century through the war years.
As a staple of financial literature, there is of course lots of valuable advice for a new investor/speculator (the distinction between speculating and investing is delineated in the book), though I wondered at times how much of it is really relevant today. Nowadays 'tips' take the form of financial analyst stock ratings, which are important considerations for any investor as they are generally algorithm-driven and based on robust fundamental or technical principles, making them (one would hope) immune to malicious advertising by brokers. Also there are much tighter regulatory controls regarding insider manipulation today.
That said, I think this book was quite instrumental in shaping people's approach to the markets over the past century, with the insights contained in the book into what are now known as fundamental and technical analysis being widely known today.
The sections on legal market manipulation were intriguing, if a little inapplicable to me, describing how to orchestrate an active market in a stock using group psychology in order to offload a load of stock with minimal loss.
The book whetted my appetite to learn more about how market regulation has evolved over the past century.
The Kindle version is unfortunately poorly formatted - the scanned text has many idiosyncracies causing lots of typos. I would recommend a hard copy instead.
As a staple of financial literature, there is of course lots of valuable advice for a new investor/speculator (the distinction between speculating and investing is delineated in the book), though I wondered at times how much of it is really relevant today. Nowadays 'tips' take the form of financial analyst stock ratings, which are important considerations for any investor as they are generally algorithm-driven and based on robust fundamental or technical principles, making them (one would hope) immune to malicious advertising by brokers. Also there are much tighter regulatory controls regarding insider manipulation today.
That said, I think this book was quite instrumental in shaping people's approach to the markets over the past century, with the insights contained in the book into what are now known as fundamental and technical analysis being widely known today.
The sections on legal market manipulation were intriguing, if a little inapplicable to me, describing how to orchestrate an active market in a stock using group psychology in order to offload a load of stock with minimal loss.
The book whetted my appetite to learn more about how market regulation has evolved over the past century.
The Kindle version is unfortunately poorly formatted - the scanned text has many idiosyncracies causing lots of typos. I would recommend a hard copy instead.
informative
slow-paced