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Thoughts on Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

  
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Dear Reader/Traders….If u had not Read this Book…then u had not read anything……its a Bible …Buy and Read atleast once ………..

One of the fascinating things in Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is the constant interplay between duplicit and dishonest practices of Livermore himself and the crooks he deals with. It reminds one of the crossroaders book where the two best friends cheat each other with a mechanical mirror and other means in constant games between them. Only when they realize that the stake between them keeps getting smaller do they realize that they’re both getting poorer because they have to pay the third crook, the “mechanic” for the use of the mirror. The rake was constant. They both show no compunction about cheating their best friends until they realize they’ve been viged to death by a third party.

Livermore is constantly appalled that in the nefarious schemes of manipulation and cornering that the holders of worthless securities engage in with him, that his customers have no honor among mutual thieves like the crossroaders. His terms for a manipulation are as follows: suppose the manipulators have 200000 shares of a listed stock at 40. Livermore will take call on all 200000 shares of stock at 40 for 1 year. They will also put up 6 million in cash for him to make a market and engage in his own insider trading with.

I doubt that the two most wealthy fellow travelers themselves and friends of the Oval who engage in such transactions with the triangle of their colleagues in the banking, and legislative branches receive such favorable terms or insider information today, albeit they seem to have more influence on the terms and policies.

In any case, how would you value what Livermore’s normal take was for such a manipulation? He receives a call for 1 year on 2000000 shares and that’s worth about 10%, so 800000. Then use of 6 million for manipulation for 1 year, enablling him to front run with that stake. How to value that aspect? Let’s say 500000.

He engaged in these transactions in the 1920-1929 period. No wonder Livermore was worth 50 million at the height of 1929 before losing it all, and declaring bankruptcy the fourth time, and going bust for at least the twelth time in 1934, before his suicide at the Sherry Netherlands.

it reminds one of the radi0 show tag line “crime does not pay”.

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…)

Let profits ride until price action dictates otherwise.

  
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jessePerhaps the most famous quote attributed to Livermore is, “It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting.” Traders are wired to be “doing something,” and this can cause churning, over-trading, getting out of positions too soon, and making your broker the wealthy one. The famous Turtle Traders were trend traders who made few trades and had learned the importance of staying in a winning trade.

For today’s traders, there are multiple variations to keep you in a trade. It’s not so important which method you implement, but that you do recognize when to hold a winner for maximum potential, and when a trend has changed character and it’s time to ring the register.

One method that satisfies the desire for profit and subdues the fear of a losing trade is to take one half of your profit off at a predetermined level, put a stop at breakeven on the rest, and let it play out without micromanaging the position. Even day and swing traders will benefit from letting a partial position play out when all indicators hint that more upside might be in the cards. Always remember this rule is letting a profitable position run, but it’s not a license to bury one’s head on a losing position

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

  
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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”

Livermore quotes

  
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Jesse_Livermore_quotesLivermore on irationality

Trying to figure out the “why” of amarket move can often cause great emotional strife. The simple fact is, the market always precedes economic news, it does not react to economic news. The market lives and operates in future time.

 
Livermore on knowing yourself

It is my conclusion that playing the market is partly an art form, it is not just pure reason. If it were pure reason, then somebody would have figured it out long ago. That’s why I believe every speculator must analyze his own emotions to find out just what stress level he can endure. Every speculator is different, every human psyche is unique, every personality exclusive to an individual. Learn your own emotional limits before attempting to speculate, that is my advice to any one who has ever asked me what makes a successful speculator. If you can’t sleep at night, because of your stock market position than you have gone too far, if this is the case then sell your position down to the sleeping level. (more…)

Livermore on speculation

  
  Education
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Just remember, without a discipline, a clear strategy and a concise plan, the speculator will fall into all the emotional pitfalls of the market and jump from one stock to another, hold a losing position too long, cut-out of a winner too soon and for no reason other than fear of losing the profit. Greed, fear, impatience, ignorance and hope, will all fight for mental dominance over the speculator. Then after a few failures and catastrophes, the speculator may become demoralized, depressed, despondent, and abondon the market and the chance to make a fortune of what the market has to offer.

Develop your own strategy, discipline and approach to the market. I offer my suggestions as one, who has traveled the road before you. Perhaps I can act as a guide for you and save from falling in some of the pitfalls that befell me. But in the end the decisions must be your own”.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Jesse Livermore) : Edwin Lefevre 1923

  
  Education
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101% Must Read this article +Buy this Book too …A Bible for Every Trader !

The book starts with Livermore’s early trading career that was essentially scalping the markets for short trem profits using the tape and how he got to understand price movements before a bullish or bearish run. Livermore made $millions 3 times and lost it each time. He sadly ended up committing suicide in 1940 in the Sherry Netherland Hotel. He had amassed a $100m fortune by this time and no-one knew what happended to it. Maybe a trading disaster of some kind….who knows.

Some quotes and passasges I loved from the book

Grades of Suckers : The beginner knows nothing and everybody, including himself, knows it. But the next, or second, grade thinks he knows a great deal and makes others feel that way too. He is the experienced sucker, who has studied not the market itself but a few remarks about the market made by a still higher grade of suckers. The second-grade sucker knows how to keep from losing his money in some of the ways that get the raw beginner. It is this semisucker rather than the 100 per cent article who is the real all-the-year-round support of the commission houses. He lasts about three and a half years on an average, as compared with a single season of from three to thirty weeks, which is the usual Wall Street life of a first offender. It is naturally the semisucker who is always quoting the famous trading aphorisms and the various rules of the game. He knows all the don’ts that ever fell from the oracular lips of the old stagers excepting the principal one, which is: Don’t be a sucker!

This semisucker is the type that thinks he has cut his wisdom teeth because he loves to buy on declines. He waits for them. He measures his bargains by the number of points it has sold off from the top. In big bull markets the plain unadulterated sucker, utterly ignorant of rules and precedents, buys blindly because he hopes blindly. He makes most of the money until one of the healthy reactions takes it away from him at one fell swoop.

Sitting Tight : It was never my thinking that made me my big money; but my sitting. Sitting tight! Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon

Being Wrong : I was wrong; and the only thing to do when a man is wrong is to be right by ceasing to be wrong. get out of the trade.

Being Right : What is the use of being right unless you get the most use out of it ?! (maximising trades)

News : I work in harmony with the markets and take the path of least resistance every time. The trend is always established before the news is published. In Bull markets bear items are ignored and Bull items are exaggerated. (more…)

Livermore: Follow The Leaders

  
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“For a new age of markets has been ushered in – an age that offers safer opportunities for the reasonable, studious, competent investor and speculator.” – Livermore

In the third chapter of How To Trade in Stocks, Livermore discusses the importance of following the leading stocks in the leading groups. He argues that a speculator needs to be in tune with the general trend of the market and to only follow leading stocks from leading groups so that he is not overwhelmed with unnecessary data.

The Trend Is Your Friend

“It is not good to be too curious about all the reasons behind price movements. You risk the danger of clouding your mind with non-essentials. Just recognize that the movement is there and take advantage of it by steering your speculative ship along with the tide. Do not argue with the condition, and most of all, do not try to combat it.” – Livermore

 

If you don’t understand what Livermore is talking about here, you can find an example on your TV almost around the clock. If you tune in to one of the business news cable channels at just about any time, day or night, you will find journalists and so-called experts breaking down even the slightest details of the global economy or an individual stock.

Livermore argues that this obsession with analyzing the reason behind a price movement is completely unnecessary. He says that we should simply recognize that there is, in fact, a price movement and align our investments to profit from that movement. This is pretty much the definition of trend following.

Focus Your Investments (more…)

Cut your losses and let your winners ride

  
  Education
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This quote is the perfect corollary to Livermore’s. Just as he preached “sitting”, letting your winners ride is the same idea. If you have on a position and it’s working, let it make you money. Don’t cut it prematurely for the sake of booking a small profit. Don’t get scared and exit on the first reaction, when all of your trading rules dictate staying in. If it’s a winner, and it’s working, then let it ride. Winners are good—embrace them.

The important flip side is how to treat losing trades. The first lesson is that losers have to be cut at some point.  Otherwise, a losing trade can keep eating away at your P&L, undoing the profits from any winning positions. If you cut losses at a pre-defined level, then they stop—and presumably your wins can be larger than your losses.

The math behind this is compelling. If you assume that your average winner make 1.6x what your average loser loses, then you only need to be right 40% of the time in order to make money consistently. By keeping the leash short on your losses, then you can let the math of statistical expectation work in your favor. Cut losses and let your winners ride.

There is another aspect to this. A loser isn’t just a trade where you get stopped out at a pre-defined loss limit. Imagine a trade that isn’t making money and has just been languishing on your books—this is also a loser. Cut it, free up financial and mental capital  and move on.

Traits of Livermore That Fueled His Success

  
  Education
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You know, and I know that human nature is like the leopard that can’t change his spots. Even armed with all the latest findings into the inner workings of our psyche, it seems to provide scant help-certainly when we need it the most. I don’t know about you, but it seems like a lot of people are crying foul when it comes to the market-like it’s a rigged game. I asked Jesse about that issue:

“Get the slips of the financial news agencies any day and it will surprise you to see how many statements of an implied semi-official nature they print. The authority is some “leading insider’ or a “prominent director” or “a high official” or “someone in authority” who presumably knows what he is talking about…Quite apart from the intelligent study of speculation everywhere the trader must consider certain facts in connection with the game in Wall Street. In addition to trying to determine how to make money one must also try to keep from losing money. It is almost as important to know what not to do as to know what should be done. It is therefore well to remember that manipulation of some sort enters into practically all advances in individual stocks and that such advances are engineered by insiders with one object in view and one only and that is to sell at the best profit possible.”

So, is it not true that the more things change, the more they remain the same? What about all the talk about the retail investor leaving the market for good-because it’s not a level playing field? Do they not detest their own gullibility? Again, from Livermore: (more…)

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