Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 221
 An insightful and entertaining book May 28, 2009
Michael Broudy (UCLA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have read this book and "Jesse Livermore: World's greatest Stock trader," and I can say they are not redundant or repetitive. As far as differences go, the other book gives more of an account of Livermore's life. I would say this book probably has more insightful tips for trading, while the other is more insightful to the kind of person Mr. Livermore was. This is an entertaining and insightful book, but you have to really pay attention as it is written in a novel format.
 Livermore versus Darvas May 25, 2009
sponger (New York, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The inspirational quality of this book has been well established by other reviews. A comparable story is spun by Nicolas Darvas in "How
I made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market". While Darvas may pale in some ways in comparison to Livermore, his trading strategy evolved into
nearly identical techniques. Darvas provides a more helpful read,
however; he describes his trades, one at a time, with a specificity
lacking in the Livermore tale. While Livermore advocates buying on
resistance breakouts (thus "buying high"), Darvas illustrates how to
recognize those breakouts (provided one is willing to translate his "box
method" into chart interpretation). When Livermore coyly suggests
"selling low", Darvas explains that since one can never know how high
a stock may move, he would sell by use of a real or mental trailing stop
to sell near the top, rather than taking profits at an arbitrary point.
The Darvas system can be accused of rigidity, but at least Darvas was
a novice trader who found a strategy and applied it regularly. With
Livermore one is left wondering what the strategy really is. Darvas
serves to explain it. Both men flourished during different but powerful
bull market cycles. Livermore's journey ended shortly after the crash
of the 30s, from which he never recovered and finally committed suicide. I don't know what became the fate of Darvas. Livermore was
a trader prodigy who became a titan. Darvas was an entertainer (a dancer) and an amateur investor with time on his hands, who turned
investing as a hobby into a serious enterprise. The most important lesson they share is that it is the overall character of the market
that is more important than anything else. Both of them could stay
in cash for months, years if necessary, waiting for the right conditions
to appear. Thus, the other lesson they share is the wisdom of trading
only under the right conditions. Both learned the folly of frequent
in and out trading. Diversification was never a serious thought for
either of them. Both learned the hard way to cut losses early. Both
learned the value of not taking profits too early. Compared to most
traders both of them traded rather seldom, but invested to the hilt on margin when they did. Both books can usefully be part of any trader's library. As I write this review on Memorial Day, 2009, we are poised
for either one of the great new bull markets of a lifetime, or a correction into oblivion. Those who would choose to emulate Livermore
or Darvas will be choosing either to live by the sword or perish by it.
A Must Read for Anyone Interested in Trading (and Markets in General) May 5, 2009
Charles Leak (New York, NY)
This simply is mandatory reading for anyone looking for a Job on Wall Street (US) or in the City (UK). Please read other reviews for more details... I just want to say after being in this business for just over ten years, this is the one book I ask all of my colleagues and employees to read. It will give you a real understanding of trading and an appreciation for markets.
excellent April 22, 2009
Richard Reed Jr. (Indiana)
I loved this book. I plan on reading it at least 2 more times. There are so many life lessons on trading in here it isn't funny. This book is far cheaper than Adventures of a Currency Trader and 100 times better.
Entertaining and still relevant, after all these years March 29, 2009
Terje Nordahl
The book tells the story of a very succesfull stock speculator, and not least how he became successful by learning from his own mistakes and lack of insight. The book is very well written and the stories excitingly told. It also gives a flair of the financial world at the beginning of the 20th century. Although the tools and terms of today's stock market are lightyears from the scenes portraid, the psychology of the mind, market and the basics of fear and greed are the same. Anyone active in the market, professional and amateur will benefit from reading this book. Not least the account of how the main character of the book developed insight into himself is priceless.
Showing reviews 11-15 of 221
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