Trade Like Jesse Livermore (Wiley Trading)

Rating:
Summary: good book but falls short on explaining the Pivot Trading
Review: I mean either Smitten does not get it himself or he just plain does not want you to know....
A good book on the rest and the phsychology....

Rating:
Summary: Do not waste your money.
Review: If you read Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, then you know Livermore's rules. As for the secret trading method (Smitten calls Pivotal Point Trading).... it boils down to trendlines. That is it. The book is so similar to the books of William ONeill I was expecting an IBD subscription card to fall out: 1. Watch the top industry groups for market signals. 2. Watch the top two stocks in each market group. 3. Cut losses at 10% (IBD is 8%). 4. Watch for volume to be up at least 50%. 5. Do not average down. 6. Buy on breakouts to new highs. etc, etc, etc.

Rating:
Summary: Destined to be a classic on financial market speculation!
Review: This well written book contains a great amount of market wisdom. Smitten has distilled and organized the useful trading advice of Jesse Livermore, one of the three most famous speculators of the early twentieth century (the other two were Bernard Baruch and Arthur Cutten). The author covers the fine points of market timing, selection of the appropriate trading vehicle, emotional control, and money management. If all these factors are not considered together and harmonized at the points of entering into and exiting from a trade, success may be problematic. This book clarifies how this harmonization can best be brought about in real-time situations.

Although I am not convinced of the worth of the "Livermore Market Key" presented at the end of the book, or the practicality of scaling into a trade for the average trader of modest means, I feel that the method described is clear, concise, thorough, and eminently workable. This may be the best book on trading written in the last thirty years!