Jesse Livermore: Worlds Greatest Stock Trader (Wiley Investment) (Paperback)

His story is well known thanks to Edwin Lefevre's famous book "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" which is recognised as the best book ever written on the subject of trading and the one book that anybody who aspires to take on the market should read.

Much of the material about Jesse Livermore's trading career in Smitten's book will be familiar to anybody who has read Lefevre.

However Smitten's book does add some fascinating detail. Lefevre's book was based on one long interview with Livermore. Given his secretive and unemotional personality -Livermore did not talk to Lefevre about his personal life. Smitten focuses on this and details Livermore's lavish spending , difficult personal relationships and many tragedies including the shooting of his son by his wife. All of this serves to prove the old adage that money does not bring happiness.

Smitten book also distils the essential rules of Livermore's trading philosophy and does a great service to would-be masters of the universe. It emphasises three aspects that Livermore considered essential- a trading system, money management (i.e risk management) and emotional control (in particular the danger of the traders' ego and his emotions particularly fear, greed and ignorance )

Various incidents show how Livermore learned many of these lessons the hard way - by losing money. However he was philosophical and viewed this as an essential part of his trading education. The aspiring trader can read this and indeed Lefevre's book and hopefully learn the lessons without the painful losses.

However there is warning in the book and it is what makes the story a moral tale .

Making money in the markets is extraordinary difficult. You will make losses many times. Some of these losses may wipe you out.

The market is designed to fool most of the people most of the time. The chances of eventual success are low

In any case, even if you succeed and acquire huge riches, it probably wil not make you very happy.

On the whole this book meets the above objective. However, it falls down by the author going a bit 'Enid Blyton' on the story of Livermore's family life with the added frustration of this area being covered in none to great detail. Not that this should put you off the book, because in my view most potential readers on the subject of Livermore are more interested in his trading methods and how he executed them in the markets rather than the fact his wife and son were psychos.

A drawback is that most would-be buyers of this book will have already read Edwin Lefevre's masterful 'Reminiscences of a Stock Operator' (the original fictionalised biography of the man) which is a far superior text on the subject of Livermore's techniques and tactics. These people will not get much more from this book that they hadn't already come across.

This book is one for Livermore completists, but if you're considering this as your first purchase of a 'Livermore book', don't buy it, go for 'Reminiscences of a Stock Operator'.