Review
"...is big and beautiful, cutting across two centuries of booms and busts and market and economic history, with a myriad of vintage historical photos and instructive historical charts throughout."
(Barron's, November 1, 2010)
"This is a wonderful classic for any investor or economic historian...the style is pacey, robust and humorous."
(Professional Investor, October, 2010) "A 10 best finance book.
Does the ongoing financial turmoil leave you scratching your head? Worry not, here's our pick of the finest - and most readable - books about Big Money..."
(The Independent)
From the Inside Flap
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Annotated Edition brings the story of the great speculator Jesse Livermore to life like never before. One of the foremost investment classics of all time, the original edition of Reminiscences by Edwin Lefèvre has inspired countless investors and traders with its fictionalized account of Livermore's legendary trading experiences. Now, in this meticulously researched
Annotated Edition, Jon Markman reveals the truth about Jesse Livermore and provides colorful, historically accurate commentary on the characters, places, and events that have made
Reminiscences such an enjoyable and educational read for generations.
The real Jesse Livermore won and lost tens of millions of dollars playing the stock and commodities markets during the early 1900s, at one point making ten million dollars in one month of trading—an astronomical sum at the time. His ideas and keen analyses of market price movements are as useful today as they were when he was first developing them. Offering profound insights into the motivations, attitudes, fears, and aspirations shared by every investor and trader, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is among the most compelling and enduring books ever written on the markets.
This Annotated Edition bridges the gap between Lefèvre's fictionalized account of Livermore's life and the actual exploits, personalities, and locations that populate the book. Side-by-side with the original text is Markman's commentary about the historical setting and the real companies, individuals, and news events to which Lefèvre alludes. Readers will learn all about bucket shops—unsavory relics of the investment world that gave Livermore his first taste of trading. They'll also learn how fierce public debates over gold and silver roiled the politics and markets of the time; how presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan incited a financial panic in 1896; how World War I created a boom followed by a harsh recession; and how ambitious tycoons built fortunes from scratch and drove rivals to ruin by cornering stocks and through other now-illegal manipulations.
And they'll learn about important but forgotten figures briefly mentioned or disguised via pseudonyms in the text, such as broker E.F. Hutton, who gave Livermore a $500 loan when the trader was down on his luck, as well as legendary financiers like E.H. Harriman, John Gates, James Hill, James Keene, and Cornelius Vanderbilt as well as daring rogues like Daniel Drew and Jay Gould.
Engaging and informative, the Annotated Edition of Reminiscences of a Stock Operator provides a rich and colorful portrait of a volatile era in U.S. financial markets that in many ways parallels the crisis-prone twenty-first century. At the same time, Markman extracts the timeless insights and wisdom from one of the world's greatest traders and shows how they can be applied to understand and profit in today's markets. Longtime fans of the book will understand Reminiscences in an entirely fresh way, while new readers will enjoy a much richer experience than ever before possible.
