Jesse Livermore's Methods of Trading in Stocks

Book excerpt: Livermore started trading in securities when he was fourteen years old. He made his first thousand when a mere boy. He has practiced every device known to the active speculator, studied every speculative theory, and dealt in about every active security listed on the New York Stock Exchange. He has piled up gigantic fortunes from his commitments, lost them, digested, started all over again—and piled up new fortunes. He has changed his market position in the twinkling of an eye—sold out thousands of shares of long stock, and gone short of thousands of shares more on a decision which required reading only the one word, “but,” in a lengthy ticker statement. If his later experiences were not enough to catch the public fancy, Livermore would have won it by his greatest feat of all: beating the bucket shops. Beating the cheaters, in fact, was Livermore’s pet plan after things had gone against him and he was forced to start anew on a small-lot basis.