I don't see any reason to venerate Livermore. There are many people out there who have lived nice clean lives and have taken care of business. They have worked hard, learned a profession and managed not to shoot themselves or their family members in the process. I realize it doesn't make for an exciting book or a movie of the week, but I will bet you could learn just as much from one of those folks. Poor old Livermore was a clinically depressed alcoholic pansy who had a talent for making (and losing) money in the stock market. His personal life was a total train wreck. Frankly I the only impressive thing about him was his endurance. I bought the book and it was the dumbest thing I have ever done. End of story. Steve
I agree completely. Resilience is the key. Do you think it is necessary to have the experience of major losses in order to eventually succeed? I'd guess there are two schools of thought: the perspective of a general who has won every battle he ever lead his soldiers against and who never suffered casualties and the perspective of a general who has suffered major casualties in the past and thus has the experience of having lost men in battle. I don't know who would be better off in the next war, honestly. I'm thinking it is good to have someone leading who is sure to value each and every one of his troops because of the casualties he has suffered in the past. On the other hand, it is good to have someone who strategizes in such a way so that casualties are minimized. However, one thing that I would be sure about: The guy who had more casualties has experiences which will certainly help him in his next battle. These are experiences our no-casualty general most definitely does not have. That said, my mind is still not entirely made up on this subject.
I just came up with a reason to venerate him. How about because he has made more money in his lifetime than you ever will in yours. You have to at least respect that fact.
you never read specifics about his suicide. Can you belive that woman's record? 4 for 4. I thought some of the woman I was with were bad!
Whats her name?I wanna read HER biography. amazing, you cant accuse her of not having a talent though
It must have been some very good p***y....... Something to die for. I need to look into her record after Livermore. Jessy was a guy with huge balls and loved the game not the money. He needed a risk manager around to manage his size when he got his ego in the way. That still happens today and will continue to happen. it takes a team to run money. One guy will never play all three roles correctly. Trader Ideas generator Risk Manger. Trade well.... TC
flytiger, You go out and make $100 million once (let alone five times), and then you'll be qualified to talk about Livermore blowing his brains out. Personally...I like the guy. My attraction to Livermore is hard to pin down exactly, but includes: 1) He loved the game. 2) He was an original. 3) He had style. 4) As much as anyone else...he was the father of systems trading. It's an All-American success story...with a tragic ending (the best kind). saxon PS. $100 million in 1929 dollars (10 for 1, adjusted) is $1 BILLION today. Good luck.
You raised an interesting issue. You don't need to lose before you can learn, although most general people has to go through this step. The key is to learn form others' mistakes. You don't need to pay for every lesson. Eg: Reading why some of the greatest traders still fail give you a cost-free lesson. That's also why I can be successful very quickly once I enter into the market.
The markets are set up for you to fail, they are structured so that most people will do the wrong thing most of the time. The difference btw those that succeed and those who fail are that the successful ones learned from their OWN mistakes and rectified their problems as best they could. I really dont know a single successful trader that just walked in from the get go and got it right, regardless of how many books they read or other traders experiences they heard about. You dont need to blow out millions to find success but you also cant avoid taking losses either. Some of my top setups, which make me good $$$, dont work all the time but I will keep taking them w/o hesistation because I know, over time, they will outweigh the losers by a wide margin. But, there are some days where I cant seem to do anything right and it's just part of the game and I'm accepting that more and more everyday.