If I may chase the rabbit a bit further - my favorite example of a worthwhile trading book by a non-trader is "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edwin LeFevre. It is a fictionalized account of Jesse Livermoore's life, written in first person as if it was an autobiography. In fact, many sources on the internet incorrectly list the author as Jesse Livermoore.
This book is one of the trading classics. It is widely praised in the world of trading. It is recommended over and over again in the Market Wizards books, with some of them claiming it was the best book on trading out there. But Edwin LeFevre never made a single trade in his life. The entire book (originally a series of magazine articles) was based on one week he spent doing detailed interviews with the real Jesse Livermoore.
Personally I think that LeFevre's book is a masterful presentation of the good and productive parts of Livermoore's psychology, while leaving out the bad parts. The real Jesse Livermoore was a wizard at reading the market, but had no clue how to hang on to his money (made and lost 4 separate multi-million dollar fortunes) and his personal and family life was a disaster that culminated in suicide (in his suicide note he declared his life to be a failure). No doubt there were many aspects of his psyche that were not conducive to success in trading and would have been potential distractions and red herrings to someone trying to discover the secret to his trading success. There is no way the real Jesse Livermoore could have written a book on the psychology of trading nearly as good as ROASO. But LeFevre, peering in from the outside, was insightful enough to nail many of the psychological aspects of good trading (as judged by the best traders in the world since that time.)
Of course you would be a fool to trust LeFevre's opinion on whether to go long or short on the yen. But that's not why traders still read his book.
James
This book is one of the trading classics. It is widely praised in the world of trading. It is recommended over and over again in the Market Wizards books, with some of them claiming it was the best book on trading out there. But Edwin LeFevre never made a single trade in his life. The entire book (originally a series of magazine articles) was based on one week he spent doing detailed interviews with the real Jesse Livermoore.
Personally I think that LeFevre's book is a masterful presentation of the good and productive parts of Livermoore's psychology, while leaving out the bad parts. The real Jesse Livermoore was a wizard at reading the market, but had no clue how to hang on to his money (made and lost 4 separate multi-million dollar fortunes) and his personal and family life was a disaster that culminated in suicide (in his suicide note he declared his life to be a failure). No doubt there were many aspects of his psyche that were not conducive to success in trading and would have been potential distractions and red herrings to someone trying to discover the secret to his trading success. There is no way the real Jesse Livermoore could have written a book on the psychology of trading nearly as good as ROASO. But LeFevre, peering in from the outside, was insightful enough to nail many of the psychological aspects of good trading (as judged by the best traders in the world since that time.)
Of course you would be a fool to trust LeFevre's opinion on whether to go long or short on the yen. But that's not why traders still read his book.
James
