Idag tipsar jag om en bok från år 1923 som är en ”förklädd” biografi om Jesse Livermore och som kommit att bli en klassiker på Wall Street. Boken är en bibel för traders ännu idag och nämns som en av de bästa böcker som någonsin skrivits i ämnet.
Det handlar om boken Reminiscences Of A Stock Operator av Edwin Lefevre som alltså är skriven redan år 1923. Boken kan läsas gratis i sin helhet på länken ovan.
Jesse Livermore (1877-1940) är en av de mest framgångsrika aktiespekulanterna någonsin och även en av de mest legendomspunne. År 1929 uppskattades hans förmögenhet till över 2 miljarder dollar sett till dagens penningvärde. Om man beaktar att han började från noll i 20-års åldern var värdeutvecklingen minst sagt imponerande, med en genomsnittlig värdeutveckling per år på 55 %.
Hans investeringsstrategi byggde mycket på det som man kallar ”att rida på trenderna”. Han försökte fånga in de stora rörelserna och ökade därefter innehaven i dessa, utan att sälja av dessa i parti och minut. Det mest revolutionerande var att han snabbt realiserade förluster vid så kallade felköp, utan att ägna sig åt det som på engelska heter ”wishful thinking” om att aktien skulle komma tillbaka.
Många av hans citat har blivit odödliga i placeringskretsar. Nedan är några av de mest klassiska.
- All my life I have made mistakes, but in losing money I have gained experience and accumulated a lot of valuable don’ts. I have been flat broke several times, but my loss has never been a total loss. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here now. I always knew I would have another chance and that I would not make the same mistake a second time. I believed in myself.
- I didn’t always win. My plan of trading was sound enough and won oftener than it lost. If I had stuck to it I’d have been right perhaps as often as seven out of ten times.
- Never buy a stock because it has had a big decline from its previous high.
- Never sell a stock because it seems high-priced.
- Markets are never wrong – opinions often are.
- The human side of every person is the greatest enemy of the average investor or speculator.
- Wishful thinking must be banished.
- I knew something was wrong somewhere, but I couldn’t spot it exactly. But if something was coming and I didn’t know where from, I couldn’t be on my guard against it. That being the case I’d better be out of the market.
- I always made money when I was sure I was right before I began.
- If I hadn’t made money some of the time I might have acquired market wisdom quicker.
- If I buy stocks on Smith’s tip I must sell those same stocks on Smith’s tip. I am depending on him. Suppose Smith is away on a holiday when the selling time comes around? No sir, nobody can make big money on what someone else tells him.
- The desire for constant action irrespective of underlying conditions is responsible for many losses in Wall Street even among the professionals, who feel that they must take home some money everyday, as though they were working for regular wages.
- I learned early that there is nothing new in Wall Street. There can’t be because speculation is as old as the hills. Whatever happens in the stock market today has happened before and will happen again. I’ve never forgotten that.
- I had been trading since my fourteenth year. I had made my first thousand dollars when I was a kid of fifteen, and my first ten thousand before I was twenty-one. I had made and lost a ten thousand dollar stake more than once. In New York I had made thousands and lost them. I got up to fifty thousand dollars and two days later that went. I had no other business and knew no other game. After several years I was back where I began. No – worse, for I had acquired habits and a style of living that required money; though that part didn’t bother me as much as being wrong so consistently.