Why Wall Street traders are obsessed with Jesse Livermore

This is the man who inspired "the trader's bible": Jesse Lauriston Livermore, the mold for Edwin Lefevre's "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator."

 

Wall Street is obsessed with him.

Livermore led a life of brilliance and excess, surrounded by mistresses, scandals, money, and bankruptcy. He was a legendary trader who played big and made millions during the crash of 1929.

But by 1934, Livermore would have depleted the $100 million fortune he earned on the stock market just five years earlier. He declared a third bankruptcy, went through his second divorce, and committed suicide in 1940 - the newspapers then detailing his scandals rather than the achievements of his earlier days.

This is his life.

Quotes from Wiley's "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edwin Lefevre. Historical information from Tom Rubython's "Jesse Livermore - Boy Plunger: The Man Who Sold America Short."