Many books have been written by and about Mr. Livermore. He was a fascinating individual who reportedly made $100 million in a single day in the 1929 crash.
Legend has it that during the crash J.P. Morgan personally walked over to the N.Y. Stock exchange to ask Jesse Livermore to stop selling and start buying in order to save the markets.
He was an expert at following the right trend, with the exception of marriage. His wife was married about four times prior to marrying him, and all four husbands killed themselves, as did Jesse eventually. Not quite marriage counselor material, he is nonetheless one of the greatest wells of trading wisdom from which I have quenched my thirst in the past.
I am a much better trader because of Jesse Livermore. Every time I get stuck in a trading rut, I review my notes on his trading philosophies, which I would like to share with you below.
Jesse Livermore’s Tenants (From Reminiscences of a Stock Operator):

• Use a system and don’t deviate from it.
• Never buy a stock because it has had a big decline from its previous high.
• Detail your plan for each trade.
• Trade markets from the short side, as well as the long.
• Accept small losses as part of the game if you want to win BIG.
• If a stock doesn’t act right don’t touch it; because, being unable to tell precisely what is wrong, you cannot tell which way it is going. No diagnosis, no prognosis. No prognosis, no profit.
• Use money management at all times.
• Do not concentrate on break-even levels when you are losing.
• Don’t liquidate a winner to keep a loser.
• Don’t argue with the tape. Do not seek to lure the profit back. Quit while the quitting is good–and cheap.
• There is only one side to the stock market; and it is not the bull side or the bear side but the right side.
• Never add to a losing position. A losing position means you were wrong.
• And Most Importantly (and the hardest to learn):
  Stocks are never too high for you to begin buying or too low to begin selling. But after the initial transaction, don’t make a second unless the first shows you a profit.

One thing that really struck a cord with me when I began trading in 1986 was his retort to the famous saying, “no one ever went broke taking a profit.” Jesse followed this up with saying, “No one ever got rich taking a four-point profit in a bull market.”