Jesse Livermore - Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

I think this is one of the central points that most people fail to grasp: it’s not how many times you fail, its how much you learn from each failure. I think that’s what most of the great traders have in common; they failed plenty of times, but they got back up and made sure that they didn’t make the same mistake twice.
 
nile_croc said:
I'm an OCD depressive myself, and I love trading. OCD people are very good at following rules, and that's exactly what you need to be able to do to be a good trader.
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It all depends on how an obsessive applies themselves to trading, albeit that they may not have a choice in the matter of area application.


Maybe Livermore was an obsessive, but it's plainly obvious that his tendency may have been double edged.
 
wasp said:
Making, then losing millions, and then killing oneself is not an ideal role model imo.
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This is it. On one hand i think Livermore was a trading genius, but here's my snag, i would never refer to him in conversation to a non-trader....for obvious reasons.



That's why i said that i find it hard to get my head around the guy.
 
Having read the recent posts about his lack of money management skills, I do agree. However, one shouldn't forget that he turned $69 into $13m by the age of 40, bought an annuity to ensure the well-being of his family, and then carried on trading, albeit to make and then lose an even greater fortune. I haven't read 'Reminiscences' and so don't know if he set himself personal trading targets in his lifetime, but I would have thought that the 15 year old making $69 dollars must have been pretty pleased with himself by the age of 40? Maybe trading then became about proving himself right and not about the money involved?
 
kitejedi said:
Having read the recent posts about his lack of money management skills, I do agree. However, one shouldn't forget that he turned $69 into $13m by the age of 40, bought an annuity to ensure the well-being of his family, and then carried on trading, albeit to make and then lose an even greater fortune. I haven't read 'Reminiscences' and so don't know if he set himself personal trading targets in his lifetime, but I would have thought that the 15 year old making $69 dollars must have been pretty pleased with himself by the age of 40? Maybe trading then became about proving himself right and not about the money involved?
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Totally agree with you. IMO, Livermore became more and more obsessed with himself and not the market.
 
trader_dante said:
lol. The more I read your excerpts from Socrates, the more I think this guy was extremely deluded.
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Tom,


I think Socco is bang on. Whatever business a person chooses to take part in the bottom line is about being right about that business. Success or failure as a spectrum is abstract in the context of the individual.
 
Paul71 said:
Tom,


I think Socco is bang on. Whatever business a person chooses to take part in the bottom line is about being right about that business. Success or failure as a spectrum is abstract in the context of the individual.
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The need to be right is unfortunately why so many traders lose money.

It matters not whether you are right.

All that matters is how much you win when you are right and how much you lose when you are wrong.
 
trader_dante said:
The need to be right is unfortunately why so many traders lose money.

It matters not whether you are right.

All that matters is how much you win when you are right and how much you lose when you are wrong.
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I understand what you are saying Tom, and you're correct. A trader needs to be right about being wrong, which fits your perspective and mine also, hopefully.


So it's all about being right.:);)
 
Things didn't work out too well for Socratese either, you know...

Moving on from the romantic ideal of suicide - I will stick my neck out and say that a sunday night is better spent here than here.
 
Splitlink said:
He got under your skin, didn't he? :LOL:
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The guy was a tool, egotistical, and up his own **** and spouted a lot of drivel along the way but the longer I spend in this business, the more of the 'general gist' of what he said makes sense and I do agree with him.

His psychological crap was just that imo, but I can understand where he came from and also his attitude at the end. After he left/was banned, I spent more time reading back through his older posts and the likes of China White and Skim from a different perspective (one only reached through time), and it all made/makes a lot more sense.

He always had a 'different' way of posting that ruffled a lot of feathers but once you can see just waht 'podG is screaming at you...' and you have past a certain point, you can see why he was like how he was, and I can imagine he also thought it hilarious.

End of the day though, reading his old posts and looking past the attitude and posting style to what he was really saying, there is/was a lot of 'nuggets' there.

Anyhow, don't want to take the thread of course so bowing out...
 
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