What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars (Columbia Business School Publishing) is probably one of the best books about how to understand the markets and its participants. I'm always surprised it's not mentioned more.
The Market Wizard books are only so-so in my opinion. Yes, the interviews are interesting but I think they're all sort of weak when it comes to offering actionable information. But I still read a chapter here and now.
The new Livermore book is much better than the original. The new one has the same copy as the original but adds in far more details about the times and the characters in the market. Livermore was such an action junky it was no surprise he topped himself with much of his fortune gone. How he must have made his brokers and the market makers rich with all his trading at those high comms and high bid-offer spreads. Niederhoffer argues, and I think correctly, that it was impossible for Livermore to keep the big profits he earned over his lifetime due to the heavy trading costs of the time. Think about this point because on one hand you clearly had a brilliant trader, and one it seems with no fear, yet that wasn't enough...
The Market Wizard books are only so-so in my opinion. Yes, the interviews are interesting but I think they're all sort of weak when it comes to offering actionable information. But I still read a chapter here and now.
The new Livermore book is much better than the original. The new one has the same copy as the original but adds in far more details about the times and the characters in the market. Livermore was such an action junky it was no surprise he topped himself with much of his fortune gone. How he must have made his brokers and the market makers rich with all his trading at those high comms and high bid-offer spreads. Niederhoffer argues, and I think correctly, that it was impossible for Livermore to keep the big profits he earned over his lifetime due to the heavy trading costs of the time. Think about this point because on one hand you clearly had a brilliant trader, and one it seems with no fear, yet that wasn't enough...
Road To Wisdom? To err and err and err again, but less and less and less...