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Book Review : Jesse Livermore: Boy Plunger

  
  Education
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71bdRlXbWuLThis is a story of triumph and tragedy.  Jesse Livermore is notable as one of the few people who ever made it into the richest tiers of society by speculating — by trading stocks and commodities — betting on price movements.

This is three stories in one.  Story one is the clever trader with an intuitive knack who learned to adapt when conditions changed, until the day came when it got too hard.  Story two is the man who lacked financial risk control, and took big chances, a few of which worked out spectacularly, and a few of ruined him financially.  Story three is how too much success, if not properly handled, can ruin a man, with lust, greed and pride leading to his death.

The author spends most of his time on story one, next most on story two, then the least on story three.  The three stories flow naturally from the narrative that is largely chronological.  By the end of the book, you see Jesse Livermore — a guy who did amazing things, but ultimately failed in money and life.

Let me briefly summarize those three aspects of his life so that you can get a feel for what you will run into in the book:

The Clever Trader

Jesse Livermore came to the stock market in Boston at age 14, and was a very quick study.  He showed intuition on market affairs that impressed the most of the older men who came to trade at the brokerage where he worked.  It wasn’t too long before he wanted to invest for himself, but he didn’t have enough money to open a brokerage account, so he went to a bucket shop.  Bucket shops were gambling parlors where small players gambled on stock prices.  He showed a knack for the game and made a lot of money.  Like someone who beats the casinos in Vegas, the proprietors forced him to leave.

He then had more than enough money to meet his current needs, and set up a brokerage account.  But the stock market did not behave like a bucket shop, and so he lost money while he learned to adapt.  Eventually, he succeeded at speculating on both stocks and commodities, leading to his greatest successes in being short the stock market prior to the panic of 1907, and the crash in 1929.  During the 1920s, he started his own firm to try to institutionalize his gifts, and it worked for much of the era. (more…)

Day Traders : Read These Rules EveryDay-Spend 10 Minutes

  
  Education
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  1. There is no single true path. 
  2. The universal trait is discipline.
  3. Trade your personality.
  4. Failure and perseverance are part of every successful trader’s life.
  5. Great traders are flexible.
  6. It takes time to become a successful trader.
  7. Keep a record of your market observations.
  8. Develop a trading philosophy.
  9. What is your edge?  Big picture tech, change, on the cusp, understand big trend before others, shifts.
  10. Confidence is important, and you build it from hard work.
  11. Hard work.
  12. Obsessiveness.
  13. Market wizards are innovators, not followers.
  14. To be a winner you have to be willing to take a loss!
  15. Risk control.  Stop-loss, or reducing position size, limit initial position size, short selling.
  16. You can’t be afraid of risk
  17. Some limit downside by focusing on undervalued stocks. (but still can drop.)
  18. Value alone is not enough.  Need catalysts.
  19. The importance of catalysts.
  20. Focus not only on when to get in, but when to get out

Trading Wisdom

  
  Education
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Markets are highly random and are very, very close to being efficient.

If you are a new trader, trading is probably harder than you think it can be. If you’ve been trading a while, you know this. Financial markets are one of the most competitive environments in the modern world. New information is quickly processed and incorporated into prices. This means that you cannot outsmart the market consistently. You cannot invest based on what you think makes sense or should happen because you are up against investors with superior access to information, knowledge, experience, capital and other resources. Most of the time, markets move in a more or less random fashion; you can’t make money if market movements are random. (“Efficient”, in this context, is an academic term that basically means that all available information is reflected in prices.)

It is impossible to make money trading without an edge.

There are many ways to create an edge in the markets, but one this is true—it is very, very hard to do so. Most things that people say work in the market do not actually work. Treat claims of success and performance with healthy skepticism. I can tell you, based on my experience of nearly twenty years as a trader, most people who say they are making substantial profits are not. This is a very hard business.

Every edge we have is driven by an imbalance of buying and selling pressure.

The world divides into two large groups of traders and investors: fundamental traders who base decisions off of financial analysis, understanding of the industry and a company’s competitive position, growth rates, assessment of management, etc. Technical traders base decisions off of patterns in prices, volume or related data. From a technical perspective, every edge we have is generated by a disagreement between buyers and sellers. When they are in balance (equilibrium), market movements are random.

Emotions and Mindset

  
  Education
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Emotional stability and discipline is the foundation upon which a trader has to build his trading methodology. Without the ability to control emotions and the impulsive trading decisions emotions cause, the best trading system and the best thought-out risk management approach are useless.

I truly feel that I could give away all my secrets and it wouldn’t make any difference. Most people can’t control their emotions or follow a system.  – Linda Raschke
Markets are never wrong – opinions often are. – Jesse Livermore
I don’t get caught up in the moment. – Ray Dalio
If you argue with the market, you will lose. – Larry Hite
The psychological factor for investing has 5 areas. These include a well-rounded personal life, a positive attitude, the motivation to make money, lack of conflict [such as psychological hang ups about success], and responsibility for results.  -Dr. Van K. Tharp
It is hard enough to know what the market is going to do; if you don’t know what you are going to do, the game is lost. – Alexander Elder 

These quote highlight the fact that, before you get into the nitty-gritty of your trading system and try to tweak your stop loss or take profit placement, you have to work on your discipline. It is not a stop loss order that should have been placed 5 points higher or lower that makes the difference between a consistently losing and a profitable trader, but the degree to how a trader can avoid emotionally caused trading mistakes.

Trader’s Emotions

  
  Education
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The hardest thing about trading is not the math, the method, or the stock picking. It is dealing with the emotions that arise with trading itself. From the stress of actually entering a trade, to the fear of losing the paper profits that you are holding in a winning trade, how you deal with those emotions will determine your success more than any one thing.

To manage your emotions first of all you must trade a system and method you truly believe will be a winner in the long term.

You must understand that every trade is not a winner and not blame yourself for equity draw downs if you are trading with discipline.

Do not bet your entire account on any one trade, in fact risking only 1% of your total capital on any one trade is the best thing you can do for your stress levels and risk of ruin odds.

With that in place here are some examples of emotional equations to better understand why you feel certain emotions strongly in your trading:

Despair = Losing Money – Trading Better

Do not despair look at your losses as part of doing business and as paying tuition fees to the markets.

Disappointment = Expectations – Reality (more…)

40 One Liners For Traders

  
  Education
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1. Trading is simple, but it is not easy.40 rules

2.  When you get into a trade watch for the signs that you might be wrong.

3.  Trading should be boring.

4.  Amateur traders turn into professional traders once they stop looking for the “next great indicator.”

5.  You are trading other traders, not stocks or futures contracts.

6.  Be very aware of your own emotions.

7.  Watch yourself for too much excitement.

8.  Don’t overtrade.

9.  If you come into trading with the idea of making big money you are doomed.

10.  Don’t focus on the money.

11.  Do not impose your will on the market.

12.  The best way to minimize risk is to not trade when it is not time to trade. 

13.  There is no need to trade five days a week.  

14.  Refuse to damage your capital.

15.  Stay relaxed. (more…)

10 Most Foolish Things a Trader Can Do

  
  Education
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The Ten Most Foolish Things a Trader Can Do

  1. Try to predict the future movement of a stock, and stay in it no matter what.
  2. Risk your entire account on one trade with no stop loss plan.
  3. Have a winning trade but no exit strategy to get out, no trailing stop or exhaustion top signal.
  4. Ask for and follow the advice of others instead of trading with your own trading plan, method, rules, and system.
  5. Trade your emotions instead of signals: buy when you are greedy and sell when you are afraid.
  6. Trade your opinions, not a quantified method.
  7. Do not bother to do your homework on trading, just jump in and trade, you are smart, you will figure it out.
  8. Short the best and most expensive stocks in the stock market and buy the cheapest junk stocks.
  9. Put on trades you are 100% sure are winners so you do not even need a stop loss or risk management.
  10. Buy more of a trade that you are losing money in and sell your winners quickly to lock in small profits.

10-Trading Method Quotes For Traders

  
  Education
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1.    “Trade What’s Happening…Not What You Think Is Gonna Happen.” – Doug Gregory
2.    Go long strength; sell weakness short in your time frame.
3.    Find your edge over other traders.
4.    Your trading system must be built on quantifiable facts not opinions.
5.    Trade the chart not the news.
6.    A robust trading system must either be designed to have a large winning percentage of trades or big wins and small losses.
7.    Only take trades that have a skewed risk reward in your favor.
8.    The answer to the question, “What’s the trend?” is the question, “What’s your timeframe?” – Richard Weissman. Trade primarily in the direction that a market is trending in on your time frame until the end when it bends.
9.    Only take real entries that have an edge, avoid being caught up in the meaningless noise.
10.    Place your stop losses outside the range of noise so you are only stopped out when you are likely wrong.

WISDOM FROM BERNARD BARUCH – For Traders & Investors

  
  Education
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From the SAME AS IT EVER WAS file: Bernard Baruch, a colleague and friend of Jesse Livermore’s, who made a fortune shorting the 1929 crash, and then who later advised presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt on economic matters, listed the following investment rules in his autobiography published in 1958 entitled Baruch: My Own Story.  These rules are still as applicable today.


1.  Don’t speculate unless you can make it a full-time job.
2.  Beware of barbers, beauticians, waiters–of anyone–bringing gifts of “inside” information or “tips.”(Avoid  Blue channels )
3.  Before you buy a security, find out everything you can about the company, its management and competitors, its earnings and possibilities for growth. (Don’t Trust Indian Management )
4.  Don’t try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top.  This can’t be done–except by liars.
5.  Learn how to take your losses quickly and cleanly.  Don’t expect to be right all the time.  If you have made a mistake, cut your losses as quickly as possible.
6.  Don’t buy too many different securities.  Better have only a few investments which can be watched.
7.  Make a periodic reappraisal of all your investments to see whether changing developments have altered their prospects.
8.  Study your tax position to know when you can sell to greatest advantage.
9.  Always keep a good part of your capital in a cash reserve.  Never invest all your funds.
10.  Don’t try to be a jack of all investments.  Stick to the field you know best.

Jesse Livermore’s Best 10 Quotes & Free Link to His Book

  
  Education
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Here is a list of the ten most powerful quotes from Jesse Livermore’s book “How to Trade in Stocks.” Livermore was one of the greatest stock market operators of our time and his quotes stand the test of time. No one made more money in the markets or came back from more bankruptcies than Jesse Livermore. He successfully shorted the Great Depression crash for one of the biggest trading wins in history. While his weakness was not managing his risk of ruin his strength was he could become a millionaire trading during a trending market over and over starting with a small stake. While in the end he decided to take his own life he lived his life as the world’s greatest trader for half a century.

“Do not anticipate and move without market confirmation—being a little late in your trade is your insurance that you are right or wrong.” -Jesse Livermore

“The good speculators always wait and have patience, waiting for the market to confirm their judgment.” -Jesse Livermore

“{Limit} interest in too many stocks at one time.  It is much easier to watch a few than many.” -Jesse Livermore

“Experience has proved to me that the real money made in speculating has been: “IN COMMITMENTS IN A STOCK OR COMMODITY SHOWING A PROFIT RIGHT FROM THE START. ” -Jesse Livermore

“As long as a stock is acting right, and the market is right, do not be in a hurry to take a profit. You know you are right, because if you were not, you would have no profit at all. Let it ride and ride along with it. It may grow into a very large profit, and as long as the “action of the market does not give you any cause to worry,” have the courage of your convictions and stay with it.” -Jesse Livermore

“It is foolhardy to make a second trade, if your first trade shows you a loss. ” “Never average losses. ” Let that thought be written indelibly upon your mind.” -Jesse Livermore

“One should never sell a stock, because it seems high-priced.” -Jesse Livermore

“Profits always take care of themselves but losses never do. ” The speculator has to insure himself against considerable losses by taking the first small loss. In so doing, he keeps his account in order so that at some future time, when he has a constructive idea, he will be in a position to go into another deal, taking on the same amount of stock as he had when he was wrong.” -Jesse Livermore
“It is significant that a large part of a market movement occurs in the last forty-eight hours of a play, and that is the most important time to be in it.” -Jesse Livermore

“A speculator should make it a rule each time he closes out a successful deal to take one-half of his profits and lock this sum up in a safe deposit box. The only money that is ever taken out of Wall Street by speculators is the money they draw out of their accounts after closing a successful deal.” -Jesse Livermore

Link to Jesse Livermore’s Book “How to Trade in Stocks”

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