his theories about making money on the markets still is the easiest way to make money for the retail and individual trader/investor/speculator.. forget quants and automated trading strategies..those strategies are for market makers or brokers who pay nothing in commissions.
The book is a trading classic. I read it last summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. I agree his life is not one to be emulated but some of his trading strategies are startling. I recall his spooking the wheat market by shorting corn as well as the day we the coffee market was shut down to prevent his corner. It's a great read for anyone in trading. He does advocate strongly for adding to winners and minimizing losers.
Reminesinces is being referred to as "the book", actually there are other books about Livermore, one by Richard Smitten goes into great detail about him. Smitten interviewed the wife of Jesse's oldest son. She told Smitten that Jesse Jr. said that his father's trading and personality changed after the creation of the SEC in 1934. She doesn't say this, but I think it was because after the SEC he couldn't operate pools anymore and he couldn't feed stock to the public in IPO fashion anymore. Yes I know in Reminesences he often said he played a lone hand, but that was not entirely true. There is a book that is deceptively titled, "Jesse Livermore: Speculator King". It is actually a slam of Jesse Livermore written by a little weasel named Paul Sarnoff. Sarnoff was such a scumbag he actually relishes Jesse Livermore's experience of being robbed at gunpoint. BTW, Sarnoff has since died, but I once found a document on the SEC website where he settled churning and burning charges with a client of his. What an asshole Sarnoff was. Good riddance. Livermore started out as a teenage runaway with just a couple of dollars in his pocket. He built it into a massive fortune, there is no denying that. Critics love to harp on Livermore's huge market losses, as if his estate Evermore and his fabulously furnished office in the Hecksher building never existed. Jesse Livermore was a great trader for his time. One other interesting tidbit about Livermore - Richard Smitten also interviewed Paul Livermore, Jesse's youngest son, about Jesse's suicide. Paul said that when he went to the home of his stepmother Harriet, (Jesse's wife at the time), she was gathering up paper bags full of cash and jewelry and getting it out of the house because she was sure the police may come there to search it as part of their investigation into the suicide. She said it would be too hard to explain it, so she was getting it out of the house. Paul said he didn't know how much it was, but it was a lot, in fact it was in several bags. So there was more to the Livermore fortune than his trust accounts that were known about. he obviously kept some cash under the mattress too. Oh - one other tidbit. That last wife of Livermore's - four of her husbands committed suicide including Jesse.
Livermoore On Wall Street week (TV), almost every old-timer admitted to having read Reminiscences when they started out. But hay back then there were only a hand full of books anyway. So the best book written by Livermore, which was the question, has to be the series of articles in the Post. Compiled and released after they were in the public domain in the Illustrated version. Now the back-story is Reminiscences was quietly allowed to go out of print and peacefully died a sober death. Then the legendary trader Stanley (Make a million on one trade) Kroll resurrected it in the 80Ãs. Stanley had read the book as he went out and made some million dollar trades himself. Kroll also wrote some books about what he learned from Reminiscences as well as the philosophy of Sun Tzu. Now Reminiscences is everywhere including free online. Every trader should read at least the first five chapters and make there own personal opinions on the Livermore technique.
Simple. He was a pure artist of "the game." Artists always reach beyond their grasp. They sometimes succeed brilliantly. They sometimes fail tragically. But they never fail to inspire.
60 years after his death, he is still talked about by fellow traders. If you're up there reading this Jesse, it's ok to finally smile and be happy.
Sounds like a niederhoffer. Think he will be a future jessie Livemore one day? A tragic hero of herculean proportions, inspiring traders 20/1000 years from now?
Off topic, but I told Loza that my state was one of five states that spends more money on prison than education, and that the '49' other states are close. I obviously meant the other '45' states.