It seems that so much has been written about the “ticking mechanism” of financial transactions on Wall Street, the economy is developing so quickly and unpredictably, that the reason for the almost century-old popularity of E. Lefebvre's book “Memoirs of a Stock Market Speaker” is completely incomprehensible.
A bit about the author
Edwin Lefevre (George Edwin Henry Lefèvre) was born in 1870 in Colon, Colombia (now Panama). He is a graduate of Lehigh University, a mining engineer, but journalism attracted a lot more.
Not surprisingly, there is a sharp turn in the biography of Edwin Lefebvre. At the age of fifteen, having started working at New York Sun with the collection of daily quotes, he became a staff interviewer for the newspaper.
Communicating with various economists, traders, brokers and investors, Edwin Lefebvre gets acquainted with the laws and rules of the trading exchanges, the formation of transactions and financial instruments, and begins to understand them as a professional.
But he does not become either a forex trader or an investor, but chooses the path of a writer. In 1901, Edwin Lefebvre's first Wall Street storybook was released. These are short stories about the life and work of business on the largest exchange in New York, which were previously published in newspapers and magazines. Edwin himself never showed excitement, did not "dabble" with stocks, but received information mainly through communication and interviewing of the real business leaders. His natural ingenuity, the ability to find innovative solutions, journalistic instinct and curiosity and the ability to "talk" to the interlocutor were his main assistants.
The events and upheavals of 1929 helped the writer better understand that "it is always impossible to win," the leaders are also mistaken, only a little later than the gambling and stupid businessmen.
Features of the books of E. Lefebvre
Edwin Lefebvre's books, which are more like art in style, teach you how to trade stock markets in an easily readable and accessible way.
But the real fame that allowed him to become a classic of American literature was brought by the work “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator”. Sometimes its name is translated as "Notes of the stock speculator." The book was published in 1923.
In total, E. Lefebvre wrote eight works, but the most read is “Memoirs”.
The author died in 1943 at the height of World War II. His sons became a successful businessman and politician.
Summary of the book "Memories"
She talks about the life and career of Larry, the prototype of which is a real-life businessman Jesse Lauriston Livermore. He lived 63 years and was one of the most successful exchange speculators of his time. The book is his fictionalized biography.
At the age of 15, Larry tried to work as a clerk in a small bookmaker, tried to "do his own business", that is, to speculate, successfully making money. But the young man was kicked out with a bang. Larry moves to New York, where he connects to a serious game on stock exchanges. He wins and loses again, but with each attempt he gets serious experience and skills, finds his own style of doing business. With each failure, Larry is playing better and better, learning to predict the periods of ups and downs of stocks, the moments of their fluctuations. So he becomes very rich and famous, large and serious companies need him. Each step of the main character in business is considered and analyzed by the author, who himself has learned the laws and rules of working on the exchange and shares with readers the lessons that this work gave him.
“Memories” do not provide ready-made answers to specific or general questions. This is not a textbook. The book does not teach how and how much to buy and sell, but explains the principles and rules of the market, considers the mistakes made by beginners in speculation. It does not give numbers, few statistics, no diagrams and other things. An instructive story laid out in an art form will be useful both to a player on the exchange and to a person who is far from transactions. The psychologist’s talent and the author’s extraordinary mind made the protagonist reveal his soul, look for the reasons for each of his defeats, find reasons, draw correct conclusions and correct mistakes. The book “Memoirs” is capable of giving a motivational impetus to anyone who has a desire to do trading. It shows all the moves and exits existing in the game on exchange rates, reveals the psychology of investing. “Memories” helped to become successful for more than one generation of traders, demonstrating how simple common sense, the ability to think outside the box and work on their own mistakes help not only in the game on stocks, but also in the conduct of any trade.
Book Reviews
Almost all reviews of Edwin Lefebvre's book are more than positive. It is called precious, interesting, smart, optimistic, necessary, etc. The book has been translated into a huge number of languages and is an original textbook for those who want to devote themselves to business. It is noted that the author teaches to think with his own head, to make decisions on his own, that the book is useful for both beginners and experienced traders, and not only them.
Some interesting points from the book
- You need to know not only the direction of movement of the courses, but also the moments of the beginning and end of the game.
- Large incomes will be only with significant changes in monetary rates.
- There is nothing new on the stock exchange.
- The desire for constant purchases and sales is destructive; a good trader must be able to wait and stay inactive.
- A trader never argues with reality.
- Manipulation must be based on common sense trading.
- Speculations take a lot of time.
- Losses must be limited in every way.
- The speculator must believe in himself and his judgment.
Afterword and conclusions about the book of E. Lefebvre
Despite the existence of a number of books about the trading path of the protagonist, not one of them can be compared in popularity with “Memoirs of a stock speculator.”
The book of Edwin Lefebvre is liked by readers for the simplicity and honesty that distinguished its prototype - Jesse Livermore. He always repaid debts reaching a million dollars. A mandatory measure of success in the game on the stock exchange, according to Livermore, should be self-confidence. Read as a detective novel, the book is an excellent tool for raising morale, as well as understanding the mechanisms, rules and psychology of the Wall Street pit. The ending of the book hints that the reader must make the right choice. There are many things to learn in the work. Some readers will increase their level as merchants, while the rest will simply rejoice at a well-written, clever book.