Jesse Livermore: World's Greatest Stock Trader [Paperback]

Richard Smitten (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 14, 2001

"An excellent read."
—Ace Greenberg, Chairman, Bear Stearns

Richard Smitten's Jesse Livermore is the first full biography of the legendary trader profiled in the bestselling Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Wiley: 0-471-05970-6). Although he died more than half a century ago, Livermore is considered by today's top traders as the greatest trader who ever lived. An enigmatic loner, misanthrope, and notorious miser, Livermore revolutionized the profession with his innovative timing techniques, money management strategies, and high-momentum approach to trading stocks. Smitten provides a vivid portrait of Livermore and the times in which he lived and operated. He deftly combines eyewitness accounts of those who knew Livermore with fascinating stories of sensational love affairs, shootings, and suicides, and a detailed exploration of the trading strategies that made Livermore several fortunes in his lifetime.

Richard Smitten (Key West, FL) is the author of several books, including The Godmother, the critically acclaimed story of a famous woman criminal.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a lively and absorbing account of a trading legend..." (Lloyd's List, 23 November 2001-12-03)

"...another rich vein of fascinating wit and wisdom..." (The Independent, 8 December 2001)

Business Book of the Week (Money Week, 7 December 2001)

"...really enjoyed reading..." (Amply Interactive Investor, 13 December 2001)

From the Inside Flap

"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

Immortalized in the fictionalized bestselling investment classic Reminiscences of a Stock Operator as "Larry Livingstone," Jesse Livermore is considered by many to be the best trader in history. Now, for the first time, the complete true-life story of one of Wall Street's most intriguing and successful figures comes to life in Jesse Livermore: World's Greatest Stock Trader. Take a revealing and intimate look into the life, mind, and financial prowess of this legendary trader through family interviews, professional triumphs, and the revolutionary trading techniques he developed. Detailing Livermore's personal life story, author Richard Smitten vividly depicts the never-before-revealed private side of this enigmatic man, while educating you on the trading principles, timing techniques, and money management strategies that made Livermore several fortunes over his lifetime-when he adhered to them.

Livermore ran away from home in 1891 at the age of fourteen, with five dollars in his pocket. He started his stock market career as a chalkboard boy in the Boston offices of PaineWebber. A year later he was trading full time. He accumulated so much money by the time he was twenty that he was banned from all the "Bucket Shops" of New York and Boston. With his radical trading methods and an unlimited amount of patience, Livermore cornered the cotton market and made a killing in the stock market crash of 1907, amassing more than $3 million in one day.

J. P. Morgan personally asked him to stop shorting the market. With friends like financier Bernard Baruch, Walter Chrysler, Charlie Chaplin, and Alfred Sloan of General Motors, Livermore walked among giants and learned many lessons along the way. He sold the market short in 1929 and entered the depression with $100 million in cash. Livermore eventually discovered that social status and money could not help battle depression or repair disintegrating marriages and distant relationships with his sons.

In the only extensive biography of Jesse Livermore, you will stand at the center of his fascinating universe and watch him evolve. Experience the man, myth, and legend as you trace his progress from different wives to different trading strategies, Long Island estates to Palm Beach resorts, yachts, and private railway cars. Capture, for the first time, the full story both personally and professionally of the most successful trader of all time in a nonstop story of trading, triumph, and tragedy.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (September 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471023264
• ISBN-13: 978-0471023265
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best single work on Jesse Livermore, November 13, 2005

By 

a professional trader (Colorado Mountains) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jesse Livermore: World's Greatest Stock Trader (Paperback)

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.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Read Reminiscences of a Stock Operator Instead, October 7, 2003

By 

M. Pearce (North Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jesse Livermore: World's Greatest Stock Trader (Paperback)

I have read "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" three times now. The more I read it, the more I get out of it.

My main problem with this book is that 3/4 of the content regurgitates the events of "Reminiscences" almost verbatim. The writers approach however is to retell this story through reconstructing dialogue between Jessie (the protagonist) and all the various characters met in Reminiscences. I found this approach extremely irritating - especially since I was familiar enough with the original Reminiscences text to detect where the author had "made up" segments of the conversation using "artistic license to capture the flavor of the original conversations" (authors own admission).

The other 1/4 deals with Jessies private life, which although I found interesting, was plagued by the same "conversation reconstruction" style.

If you have already read reminiscences, and are truly hungry to learn more about Jessies private life and selected exploits after 1923 - then buy this book. If you have not read reminiscences, read it instead - you will learn far more out of the original source.

37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a very good book - I don't understand the negative ., July 21, 2004

By 

Oavde "oavde" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jesse Livermore: World's Greatest Stock Trader (Paperback)

I think this is a very good book and I cannot understand the negative reviews that have been posted here.

I also have "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" which I read first, and I don't find repetition here. Although I found Remin. to be a good book as well, I think I prefer this one - being closer to the truth, and full of investment advice worth its weight in gold, where Remin. tended to hide the advice amongst the fictionalised story.

I did not find it poorly written. I found it very entertaining, interesting and educational.

I won't go on and on about the good things in this book - if you are involved in the markets and can't afford to take a gamble at buying it and taking a look, and throwing it in the bin if you decide for youself it is no good - if you are struggling to justify the $$$ to be able to do that, then just give up now.

I just wanted to post this review to counter the few negative reviews here, so that the few who might be turned away by them instead might reconsider. It is good, it has valuable info. in it, and it is entertaining and educational. Give it a go.