Customer Reviews

What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars

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I'm a self taught investor/trader (arent we all) so I've collected my share of books. But this one by Jim Paul/Brendan Moynihan is the most unique book I have ever read so far. It's the only book which correctly points out that trading and investing are personal journeys; about finding out who are you, and then how to manage what you find out. Until you do, one can never be consistently successful at this game. This is largely why the public can never make a career out of trading. It never dawns on them that it's all about soul searching and then applying your strengths while controlling your weaknesses. Everyone is different; which is why there are infinite ways to make a profit. There are no "secrets" to trading. It never dawns on them that investing seminars are utterly useless. It never dawns on them that you don't have to watch CNBC either.

The book is basically two sections. Jim describes his life stories in the first part, then Brendan writes about the psychology of it all in the second part. Copies of this book are relatively pricey given the rarity. Wait until several sellers show up to take advantage of price competition. Good luck trying to find it in public libraries. This book is worth every dollar I spent to read it. It's one of those that you'd want to reread once a year so you never forget the correct way to approach the markets. The earlier in your career you get a chance to read this book, the better off you'll be.

This book should be required reading for anyone who thinks they "wanna trade like the pros" and become a full-time financial markets trader. This book makes it clear that most people don't lose because of what the market does but because of how they respond to the markets ... and how they handle losing trades.

Jim Paul's realization that there are countless ways to make money in financial markets and only a few ways to lose it is very insightful and though provoking. Read it again and again.

The title of this review is a chapter in Jim's book. I bought this book after Jim passed away on September 11, 2001 in 1 World Trade Center. He told us about this book in 1997, and I was so glad it was still in print. It is an excellent book, and it is written by an extraordinary individual. When I met Jim I could tell he was amazing, and his personality comes through in this work, which is part autobiography and part trading treatise. Jim's rise and fall and subsequent rise again makes for an incredible story, and his insight into the markets are superb. Even if you are not interested in the market, this book is worth purchasing just to learn more about Jim's amazing life story. Jim is candid, funny and dynamic in this work. I wish the world had more people like Jim Paul and more books like "What I learned While Losing a Million Dollars."

An alternative title to this book could be, "What I learned losing my ego."

After describing a meteoric rise to the top of the Chicago food chain, Jim Paul essentially boils down the secret of his success to being a cocky punk with an exceptional lucky streak that had to run out.

I think he gives himself less credit than he deserves in ascribing all his early success to luck--it takes confidence and selling ability to take advantage of the "lucky breaks" he got--but that is beside the point. His main message is that success fed his ego until he felt that winning was his birthright. He thought he could do no wrong, which led to inevitable downfall.

One small quibble. The ironic thing about Paul's stories of loss are that he was 99% there most of the time. If he hadn't have let the bean oil get back to zero, he could have walked away with at least a couple hundred grand in profits... if he hadn't let the stock options purchased for an eighth (or whatever it was) go to zero after seeing them hit $4, he could have had six figures in profit there again, etcetera.... I got the impression that even the big downfalls in this book were actually success stories with "oops" endings tacked on.

In this light, I didn't really understand the blurbs on the back talking about how Jim Paul shows you the perils of the trading game. What perils? The perils of not taking a huge, monster profit when it is sitting in front of your face?

This is why I have to think the book will probably just reinforce the ideas that readers already have when they pick it up. Someone with a big ego and a small mind could easily think in the back of his mind, "Nice story, Jim... good thing I won't make the same mistakes you made. Because while you just thought you were the man, I actually AM the man, heh heh..." But then again this isn't much of a criticism. I mean, who can reach those types anyway?

The last half of the book reads almost like someone else wrote it, and has some very good points. I liked the way he took comments from a bunch of the "pros" (traders who have won big and kept their winnings) and juxtaposed their ideas, to show how successful traders' thought processes are sometimes totally different and often contradict each other.

It really hammers home the point that there are multiple paths up the profit mountain, and that discipline and defense are often the only truly common elements among a broad universe of strategies. I also thought the book made a really great point about odds--hat the reward to risk ratio on a trade has nothing to do with actual probability of success for that trade.

An entertaining book worth a weekend read.

A captivating life story of a real person who lost a million and a half bucks, with the conclusions he made from it. The first half -- about the guy's life -- reads like a superb fiction story. Not extremely educational in terms of trading per se, but a lot of fun to read. The second is a thorough and insightful analysis of the psychology of losing -- product of both the authors own experience and his studies afterwards. Quite a few deep thoughts.

A word of warning: there's nothing about indicators/setups/technical analysis/trading techniques in this book -- just what the cover says, thoughts on the causes of losses in the market.

One of the profound things I found in the book is discussion on the risk/reward ratio, and why most other books get it wrong. The author claims he doesn't understand math, yet gives a great explanation why you have to take into account the PROBABILITY of return, and PROBABILITY of loss, otherwise you're just fooling yourself. If you simply divide the size of your expected return by the size of your expected loss, as many other authors suggest, lottery would be the best investment (risk $1, return $1 mil.)

This is the best book out there to explain why we do what we do to lose money in the market and what we should change to avoid it. It's an easy and fun read, and the author provided tremendous focus and clarity to get his point cross.

It helps me to see exactly why my own mentor, a successful trader with net worth over $100 million, made his trading rules as they are, which are based on almost exactly the same principle as expressed in the book. The book would have saved me tens of thousands dollars trading loss if I had read it earlier.

I would personally consider this book more insightful than Elder's book on trading psychology simply because it provided concise, clear, and practical steps to confront and resolve the root cause of our trading losses. This book is similar in style and content to those written by "tutles" including Curtis Faith.

If your fund is limited, I highly recommend you purchase instead Mark Douglas' two books on trading psychology, particularly "Trading in the Zone", if you think you need to work on your mindset/emotional control.

This book was recommended to me by another trader. I'm glad I picked it up. There are enough books out there that tell us how they make money...but too few tell us how to avoid losing it. This book is a must read! All the mistakes that we as traders make are outlined, explained, and amusingly told in this book that I fear too few traders have read.

The book makes you feel that you could have travelled the same road as the author which brings it home all the more powerfully.

The lessons are not just conceptual or psycho-babble. These are applicable lessons that you can use in your own trading as soon as you put down the book. The approach and an awareness that this book gives you helps you understand you do the things you do.

Again, this is not an outline of how to trade. These are important lessons about how we accept a trading loss, how to analyze losing trades, and finally how each of us can be tempted to rationalize losses.

A great book!

This book is so GREAT. The story was entertaining. The educational part was easy to understand and easy to apply to trading or other business ventures and your life. Trading is stressful sometimes. The book will get you prepared mentally to trade successfully. You don't have to be stressed out while still making big bucks. You have to read it to know how excellent this book is. It is still in print. The author, Brendan Moynihan, is a registered seller @ Amazon.com. Buy from him through Amazon. The book will be signed with a personal message inscribed to you by Brendan. You will love this book. Guaranteed!What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars

This book should be required reading for anyone who thinks they "wanna trade like the pros" and become a full-time financial markets trader. This book makes it clear that most people don't lose because of what the market does but because of how they respond to the markets ... and how they handle losing trades.

Jim Paul's realization that there are countless ways to make money in financial markets and only a few ways to lose it is very insightful and though provoking. Read it again and again.

This book provides a great narrative. It is one of the best books I have ever read. The author describes his horrifying loss in detail of $1.6 million in bean oil trading in the commodities market. He also shares some great stories from his younger life in high school, college, and post-graduate life regarding luck. The end of the book includes him reflecting on what went wrong and provides helpful tips that you can use in ANY business. In short, you must have a plan with an entry point, exit point, and time frame. This plan must be decided on BEFORE you do something. If you make the decision afterward, then you are subject to emotional decision-making because you're already involved. The worst losses come from personalizing them, or making them reflect on your self-image. Losses are a part of every business, and you just have to let your predetermined exit strategy or stop-loss plan run its course so you can leave the market without letting the loss get bigger.

The author also mentions some real life people who messed up by personalizing their business activities. These people include Henry Ford and Steve Jobs, who messed up a company called NeXT before he returned to Apple. A person who was held up as a positive example was Roberto Goizueta, the man who returned the classic formula to Coca Cola after the "New Coke" failed. He did not take the failure of New Coke as a personal loss, so he was able to succeed.

Also note that the author whose life the book revolves around, Jim Paul, was tragically killed on September 11th when he was in the World Trade Center. That was a horrifying day for many people. May God help us.