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Tom Rubython

Jesse Livermore - Boy Plunger: The Man Who Sold America Short in 1929 Hardcover – May 7, 2015

by Tom Rubython (Author), Paul Tudor Jones (Foreword)

93 ratings

Livermore went bankrupt for at least the fourth time in 1934. Despite having amassed a fortune of $100 million by1929, Livermore was back where he started at 16. He did not seem to learn from his
mistakes."—Victor Niederhoffer

"That was the call of a lifetime, everyone was blind and deep into the crisis and Jesse Livermore
made $100 million going short when almost everyone else was bullish and then almost everyone else lost their shirts."—John Paulson

"His stories of making millions, were the financial equivalent of “sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll” to a
young man at the advent of his financial career."—Paul Tudor Jones

"It was an amazing day on 24th October 1929 when Jesse came home and his
wife thought they were ruined and instead he had the second best trading day
of anyone in history."—John Templeton

Who was Jesse Livermore?
Jesse Livermore, was the most successful stock and commodities
trader that ever operated on the stock markets. He was both the
man who made the most money in a single day and the man who
lost the most money in a single day. In fact he made and lost three
great fortunes between 1900 and 1940.

Singlehandedly he caused the two great Wall Street crashes of
1907 and 1929, making millions from both. When he speculated he
speculated big and was known on Wall Street as the Boy Plunger.
For a brief period in the early 1930s he was one of the world’s
richest men with a personal fortune believed to be worth over
$150 million, $100 million of that earned in just a few days from
the Wall Street crash of 1929. In the end it was too extreme a
change of fortunes for any man to cope with and Livermore shot
himself in a New York hotel lobby in 1940 aged just 63. His legacy
continued and his son, Jesse jr later also committed suicide as
did his grandson, Jesse III.

In the summer of 1929 most people believed that the stock market would
continue to rise forever. Wall Street was enjoying a eight-year winning run
that had seen the Dow Jones increase 1,000 per cent from the start of
the decade - an unprecedented rise. The Dow peaked at 381 on 3rd
September and later that day the most respected economist of the day,
Irving Fisher, declared that the rise was “permanent”. One man vigorously
disagreed and sold $300 million worth of shares short. Two weeks later the
market began falling and rising again on successive days for no apparent
reason. This situation endured for a month until what became famously
known as the three ‘black’ days: On Black Thursday 24th October the Dow
fell 11% at the opening bell, prompting absolute chaos. The fall was stalled
when leading financiers of the day clubbed together to buy huge quantities
of shares. But it was short-lived succor and over that weekend blanket
negative newspaper commentary caused the second of the ‘black’ days
on Black Monday 26th October when the market dropped another 13%.
The third ‘black’ day, Black Tuesday 29th October saw the market drop a
further 12%. When the dust had settled, between the 24th and 29th October,
Wall Street had lost $30 billion. Only much later did it became known
that the man who had sold short $300 million worth of shares was Jesse
Livermore. Livermore had made $100 million and overnight became one
of the richest men in the world. It remains, adjusted for inflation, the most
money ever made by any individual in a period of seven days. This is the
story of that man.

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The Myrtle Press
Publication date

May 7, 2015
Dimensions

6.34 x 1.4 x 9.46 inches
ISBN-10

0990619915
ISBN-13

978-0990619918
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tom Rubython is best known as the author of Life of Senna, the definitive biography of Brazilian race driver Ayrton Senna. Life of Senna has become the biggest-selling third party biography of a racing driver, with 100,000 copies sold. Six years after its publication, it still sells over 8,000 copies a year. Before beginning as a biographer, Rubython was well known in the world of magazine publishing, spanning the worlds of sport and business. Aside from his work in Formula One, he has been a specialist business writer for thirty years. In business, he is the former editor of BusinessAge, EuroBusiness and Spectator Business. In sport, he has edited F1 Magazine, BusinessF1 and SportsPro. Rubython now specializes in non-fiction storytelling. He is passionate and methodical about the process of writing and researching the definitive biography. Starting out with a determination to tell the full story of a person’s life, he emphasizes what is important and de-emphasizes what is not; the crucial tools of any biographer.

Paul Tudor Jones’ connection with Jesse Livermore began when he started his career in finance at Livermore’s first broker, E.F. Hutton at the age of 26. Shortly afterwards he founded his own investment firm, the Tudor Investment Corporation. He became a student of Livermore and resolved that every new employee be handed a copy of Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, the fictional biography of Livermore, on their first day at work. His study of Livermore’s methods paid off in 1987 when he was able to predict Black Monday on 19th October 1987. Employing exactly the same short strategies as Livermore did in 1907 and 1929 he is said to have tripled his net worth that day. He never looked back and by 2014 his firm had over $14 billion under management. He has consistently made money for himself and his clients so much so that Forbes magazine rated him the 345th richest man in the world in its 2014 wealth rankings. Nowadays he devotes as much of his time to philanthropy as making money for himself running the highly successful Robin Hood Foundation. He started it to give money away himself and encourage other successful fund managers to do so as well. The Foundation is unique in that 100% of donations are spent on good causes. Fortune magazine called it: “one of the most innovative and influential philanthropic organizations of our time.”

Product details

Publisher : The Myrtle Press; 1st edition (May 7, 2015)
Language : English
Hardcover : 400 pages
ISBN-10 : 0990619915
ISBN-13 : 978-0990619918
Item Weight : 1.6 pounds
Dimensions : 6.34 x 1.4 x 9.46 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #265,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,823 in United States Biographies
- #13,510 in United States History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
93 ratings

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Matt Bailey

Favorite Biography of the Year

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2019

Verified Purchase

The life of Jesse Livermore was not quite what I expected. As someone who made money from the stock market crash I was curious as to his methodology. I got a lot more than that, including an education into the finance of the late 19th century and 20th century.

Jesse Livermore started from very meager beginnings and the early part of the book was about how he used networking skills to change that very quickly. His father pulled him out of school at 14 and told him he would be a farm laborer. A life that didn't interest him. He ran away from home with his mothers help.

In town he went right up to a financial house and asked for a job. So begins his first stock experience. Bucket Shops. This was a new concept for me. They enabled people to bet on stock prices without actually owning stock. These operated like mini casinos including turning people away for winning too much. They were shady and eventually were banned.

Jesse made and lost fortunes time after time. In this respect there is a lot about him not to model. His personal life was often a disaster. My original goal of learning from him was altered because there is so much I don't aspire to. Making a fortune is great, but not if you lose it shortly thereafter. He also had a number of bad marriages and ended his own life.

The parts I do want to copy are his methods of determining if something was working. He believed that the only way to test the truth of something was to see if he made money with it. He also used a method that stopped losses from becoming dangerous as he was often right, but early. The only time he felt guilty was when he altered his method on another persons advice against his better judgement.

He did spend an absurd amount of money on stupid things and without this vice a lot of his life would have ended up better. This was a fantastic book, not just because of his personal history, but because of what it says about the period he lived in.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Joseph G. Wick

Fascinating Character, Great Lessons, Satisfying Read

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2017

Verified Purchase

Being a stock trader for many years, I loved this book.

Almost everyone interested in stock trading has heard of Jesse Livermore who made $ 100 million in the crash of ’29. He was a fascinating man who lived fully and knew everyone on Wall Street from Joseph P. Kennedy to Bernard Baruch. Yet when he died in 1940 less than $ 5 million was left. His fictionalized story appears in “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” by Edwin LeFevre who knew him and interviewed him thoroughly. Many young stockbrokers are required to read that classic. A good, relatively recent book focusing on his techniques was written by Richard Smitten. It’s for the reader to decide the extent to which these techniques are still useful

I’ve read LeFevre and Smitten, both good, but this book is simply spectacular. It is wonderfully written and a very complete biography. The author extensively reviewed, it seems, everything about Livermore. What I especially like is the way the author explains the economic and societal environment at each stage of Livermore’s career. Also, he appears to have gained great insight into the evolution of Livermore’s mind over his career of more than forty-five years.

This work has an extensive bibliography, active index, and some good pictures (a bit small on Kindle). All in all this should be the classic Livermore story for modern traders and those simply interested in the American economy from 1890 to WWII.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Farrell Aultman

What happened to the $100 million?

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book is a good complement to Reminiscence of a Stock Operator. It reads like both a novel and a history book. If you are a fan of Jessi Livermore this is a must read. Otherwise, you may not enjoy it. Parts of it are boring and I just had to push though. The book doesn't really answer the question of what happened to his $100 million. It just kind of disappears.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

MangoYak

Great story well-told

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

The ups and downs in Livermore's life were stunning. I had some time ago read Reminiscenses of a Stock Operator and don't recall reading many of the facets of Livermore's life that are chronicled in this book. While the author admits that some details have been lost to time, I'd say a lot of attention was paid to getting the details right. Most events were 100 or more years ago, but I enjoyed an easy ability to imagine something of what those days must have been like.
5 stars for this engaging story!

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mike Smith

One of the best books I've ever read on Jesse Livermore

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2015

Verified Purchase

I read everything that I can about Jesse Livermore, and have adopted most of his successful trading strategies. Livermore was also a master on speculating, and this book explained it well. I love this book because it filled in many details of his life that were unknown to me. But most important, the author included a number of Livermore trading gems, which I was able to put to use immediately. For example, I didn't realize how important it was to Livermore to only trade a few times a year, and only when he was sure he was right (he didn't always follow his own rules, unfortunately).

Livermore was a fascinating man and the world's greatest speculator. I liked the book so much I read it twice and highlighted the most important parts (to me). Mr. Rubython did an excellent job of researching this book. Highly recommended.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Doc Watson

I very much enjoy following the markets

Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2016

Verified Purchase

I enjoy following the markets, but hopefully as an investor, not a trader. Even though I read Jesse Livermore's own "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" years ago, I found "Boy Plunger" fascinating and very worthwhile, both from insight into Livermore's own personality as well as one's own behavior/emotionality when investing.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Rob Kirk

What a great book, this was a pleasure to read

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

What a great book, this was a pleasure to read. Livermore is obviously a legend in the trading business but reading about all of the ups and downs of his life, this simply adds more color. I wish the book talked more about his trading style and specifically his trend following style but nonetheless, there are some gems of advice. It was tough to put this book down as it was so interesting and the subject matter was intriguing.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Calculus

Good book fills in much of the story.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 13, 2016

Verified Purchase

Good book, fills in lots of the details from Reminisces and as the author rightly states Reminisces is a good book but only for the first 2/3rds, the final part is rubbish and consists of basically filler articles.

I work in the markets and I often hear what a great, perhaps even super trader Livermore was. However, I don't agree because a good/super trader adapts to any market (he has to), quiet, busy, volatile, messy etc. But Livermore didn't seem able to do this, he only was able to make money in the larger moves. Not only that, he was a crazy gambler, basically for much of his trading career an all or nothing guy, Red or Black, all in, no money left in reserve. Hence when he got it right he made so much money it was unreal but when wrong, boom, he was bankrupt and normally within a very short amount of time. But to do this you still need great skills so I'm not saying he was a mug-punter although he lost most if not all of his fortune. I think this was why he finally sadly took his own life, the pressure of all in gets to most if not all.

If you're interested in Livermore buy the book it's a good read.

3 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Livermore's best known for the quasi-fictionalised portrayal of him as "Larry ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2015

Verified Purchase

Tom Rubython's biography of Jesse Livermore is well researched and sheds interesting further light on this iconic investor of the early decades of the 20th century.

Livermore's best known for the quasi-fictionalised portrayal of him as "Larry Livingston" in Edwin Lefevre's "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" - essential reading for any investor. This book completes the picture, especially his extraordinary coup in making a gain of $100 million in one day in the great stock market crash of 1929 - in today's terms, about $6.2 billion!

However, Livermore couldn't hold on to his wealth and Rubython provides a desperately sad description of how Livermore and his family ended up, with he himself, his son, and his grandson all taking their own lives. Proof, if it were needed, that money can't buy happiness . . .

I took off one star, because although the book's a fascinating read, Rubython's prose is leaden and repetitive to an extreme. He really could have done with a decent editor.

7 people found this helpful

William

"What he really did was to take advantage of some highly intelligent averaging. They tell me he won regularly until ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2016

Verified Purchase

Some inaccurate information and too many direct quote from Reminiscence of a Stock Operator. For instance, the author said Jesse Livermore used "moving average" is not accurate if he reads Reminiscence: "What he really did was to take advantage of some highly intelligent averaging. They tell me he won regularly until the World War knocked all precedents into a cocked hat." He was critical of using average.

pg49: "he was in no hurry and his first few weeks in New York were used for getting his head straight and analyzing what had really happened in the last few weeks in Boston"
pg 50 quotes: "I arrived in this city in the morning, and before one o'clock that same day I had opened an account with the firm and was ready to trade."

Some contradiction, here and there in the book.

One person found this helpful

Riccardo Ronco

Simply Superb

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 9, 2018

Verified Purchase

I was told to buy this book by a good friend of mine. I could not believe I missed it. Well, it is a page-turner, it is more authentic than RSO in a certain way and it does fill many many gaps. You need to read RSO first, no question about it but then you need to read this afterwards. Livermore was a great trader but a flawed human being. He learnt all the market lessons in the harshest possible way. Simply superb. Just buy it.

Dave Williams

Marvelous in depth study

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2017

Verified Purchase

A good read - esp if you have read 'Reminiscences' - it fills in a lot of the background & demonstrates that although Livermore might have been a bucket shop plunger in his early days, he became a consummate reader of macro-finance (self taught) who made his $billions (in today's currency) by skillful anticipation of market sentiment and moves in advance of their occurring. He knew W D Gann, and one wonders if he had any help from that direction...

One person found this helpful

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