Jesse Livermore
| Jesse Lauriston Livermore | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 26, 1877 Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | November 28, 1940 (aged 63) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Suicide by Ballistic trauma |
| Other names | Boy Plunger The Great Bear of Wall Street |
| Occupation | Investor |
| Net worth |
US$100 million (1929) US$5 million (1940) |
| Spouse(s) |
Nettie Jordan (m. 1900; div. 1917) Dorothea "Dorothy" Wendt (m. 1918; div. 1932) Harriet Metz Noble (m. 1933–40) |
| Children | 2 |
Jesse Lauriston Livermore (July 26, 1877 – November 28, 1940) was an American investor and security analyst. Livermore was famed for making and losing several multimillion-dollar fortunes and short selling during the in 1907 and 1929.
Livermore was born in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts and moved to Acton, Massachusetts as a child. He started his trading career at the age of fourteen. With his mother's blessing, Livermore ran away from home to escape a life of farming his father intended for him. He then began his career by posting stock quotes at the Paine Webber brokerage in Boston.
While working, he would write down certain calculations he had about future market prices, which he would check for accuracy later. A friend convinced him to put his first actual money on the market by making a bet at a , a type of gambling establishment that took bets on stock prices but did not actually buy or sell the stock.
By the age of fifteen, he had earned profits of over $1,000 ($26,700 in 2016 USD). In the next several years, he continued betting at the bucket shops. He was eventually banned from most bucket shops for winning too much money from them. He then moved to New York City and devoted his energies towards trading in legitimate markets. This change would lead him to devise a new set of rules to trade the market.
During his lifetime, Livermore gained and lost several multimillion-dollar fortunes. He sometimes played hunches, famously selling Union Pacific railroad short right before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Most notably, he was worth $3 million and $100 million after the 1907 and 1929 market crashes, respectively. Adjusted for inflation, $100 million in 1929, equals about $1.39 billion in 2016. He subsequently lost both fortunes. Apart from his success as a securities speculator, Livermore left traders a working philosophy for trading securities that emphasizes increasing the size of one's position as it goes in the right direction and cutting losses quickly.
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Wikipedia