“Reminiscences of a stock operator” - (Edwin Lefévre, 1923)
This quite old book from Edwin Lefévre tells us the story of fictional Larry Livingston. He started trading as a boy in Bucket shops and went on to became a very successful Trader of the early 20th century. But Livingston is the fictionalised Jesse Livermore, quoted as the greatest trader of all times. We’ve featured Livermore’s book “How to trade in stock” before in this blog.
In “Reminiscences of a stock operator” you sit right beside young Larry Livingston and watch every step of his career, listen to his thoughts about stock markets, traders and secret tips. It is interesting to see how he grows from a very short orientated trader, making a few bucks at the local bucket shop into a high position trader.
- Bucket Shop: A brokerage enterprise that “books” (i.e., takes the opposite side of) retail customer orders without actually having them executed on an exchange.
I will never forget how difficult it was for Larry to move from the bucket shop to the stock exchange. He lost at the beginning although he always won at the bucket shops before. But he didn’t give up; He had a need to understand the game too. The game with real stocks and the big money. That’s only one lesson in this book.
“I didn’t think of anything except that I could keep on proving my figuring was right. That’s all the fun there is — being right by using your head.”
With time going by, Larry learns how to play the game at the stock markets and discovers, that not the quick moves bring the big money. And so he develops patience and a more precise strategy.
I can only recommend you to read this book at least once. It was a very important step in my trading career. And please never forget: Those traders back then didn’t have any charts, unless they drew them by themselves, they had to make their decisions by price only and couldn´t use those fancy candlestick charts we use today.
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