Although he is not really a good trader (his risk management disqualifies him as a good trader in my humble opinion), it doesn't mean you couldn't learn anything from him. Learn his good parts. Take out his bad parts. Learn from his mistakes. Don't follow in his footsteps. Then you will be more successful more him.
The money Livermore made derived from trading stocks and commodities. In the trading world you keep score with the money you have at the end of the day. Hence if you make an exorbent amount of money you are good trader. Your Pablo Escobar analogy makes absoutley no sense. I respect Pablo Escobar as a drug dealer, he probably is one of the greatest of all time. Were not talking about respecting people for anything else other than there trading prowess. How does Pablo Escobar making money apply to trading?
I think you guys are forgetting one large factor. When he was trading futures, he was able to corner the market because he was so damn wealthy. Correct me if I'm wrong. - nathan
Wow. You are really off base here. Parallelling Livermore with a drug dealer. You have some serious issues. Livermore did corner the markets he traded....but not when he was first starting out. Livermore amassed wealth starting with 20 bucks he got from his mom when he left home. Now if you're telling me his trading early in his career (his beginnings) warranted a prison sentence, then I think you really don't know what y ou are talking about. Livermore, at that time, abided by the laws of his day (market was less heavily regulated). There are people who believe that Soros, G. is a criminal as well esp. for his shorting of the pound in 1992. He firmly denies he had any inside information. Do you consider him a criminal as well? Livermore repeatedly showed an ability to turn nothing into millions. He didn't always have that "ability to corner the market" edge. don't forget, he started somewhere. Livermore was the greatest trader that ever lived. Anyone who attempts to smear his life must admit that he/she could never do what livermore did in the markets.
Livermore was the epitome of risk. When he had an idea he didn't second guess himself. He felt so sure of himself that he would risk nearly all of his money on a single trade. He was right, many times but wrong also. I don't understand how you can criticize Livermore. It's like a peasant criticizing a King. Sounds like envy actually....
Surely Livermore had a sort of genius. But after one too many blowups he was tired. And realized, that after all, he contributed nothing to anyone. He succeeded at points in time as a trader because of his genius. His human flaws were too great and that is what took him down as a trader. His life was mostly a mess. One of his two sons, living an rather sick life, ended it after shot ing his own dog and them killing himself. His other son, was more successful. Worked as an actor, had a stable family. I think he grew old .
Several of the post's on this thread are the most asinine, judgmental BS I've read in many a moon. Someone's going to say with a straight face that a high school dropout quote boy who parlayed a few dollars into at one point perhaps nine figures, wasn't talented? LMFAO. I hear the same thing about Rich Dennis. The guy ran 2k into 200 mil of his own $$ in 12 years but people say he sucks because he blew out a fund. Whatever. So if he'd quit in 1930 he'd be the greatest Horatio Alger story ever told but because he got nailed in the bounce off the '32 lows, he's a bum? I'd call it the Mark Cuban syndrome. Better to be lucky than good. Reminds me of the heat Barry Bonds is taking. Here's a guy who was in the 400/400 club with a few MVP's before he ever heard the word steroid. Now there's people who think his whole career was predicated on juice. Just as no sportswriter could hit 700 HR's even if they were injected with HGH's at Dr. Frankenstein's estate, no one on ET will replicate Livermore even if they had no SEC, 10-1 stock margins, and a tap on Bernanke's' phone. BTW: Dan Zanger comes close. He's kept it (with DD's) but made a comeback splash on a very leveraged GOOG position.