Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (1923)

I've read this book a couple times. I like it, but it's important to understand this is not a book about a stock trader. It's a book about a problem gambler who happens to gamble on the stock market. One of the biggest trade in the book is just a hunch the character has, and they make bank because of an earthquake. Having an act of God rescue your position is not a strategy.

There's a part where he sets up a trust so that his family will money the next time he goes bust (which happens constantly in the book), and tells his wife that he will beg and plead for the money but she has to refuse him. That feels to me like the behavior of an addict capitalizing on a moment of lucidity to protect loved ones from their addiction.

The real Jesse Livermore died penniless by suicide. The book doesn't address his depression, but I think you do see it in what's not in the book. They don't really talk about the character's friends. They don't seem preoccupied with their wife or their children.

Keep in mind that ultimately Livermore died broke. Trading stocks is a promise of wealth that's just a mirage. Smart long term investments is your best way to a wealthy future.

required reading when youre a young buck starting out on a trading desk. its a short, quick read. there's 2 key takeaways for me when comparing today's markets and those of 100+ years ago: market dynamics are essentially unchanged & human emotions - fear and greed - drive those market dynamics in the same way.

Supposedly this is a roman a clef about Jesse Livermore's career. There's a lot of stuff in this book that makes sense of markets in ways that pretty much no other investing book I've ever read does. Some what I remember are bucket shops, tape sense, marketing campaigns for new stocks, risk of ruin (Livermore went bust over and over), and what amounts to compulsive gambling.

The bucket shops sound like prop trading companies of today