Edwin Lefebvre

Many traders have gone down in history by managing to amass more than tens of millions of dollars, but their names are forgotten from year to year, since nothing remains of them except a dry biography and statistics of their successes.
In fact, in order to forever write your name in the history of the stock exchange world, it is not enough just to own a fortune, but you need to leave something behind yourself that could give an incentive to other generations.

For example, Edwin Lefevre is familiar to almost any professional, since the book he wrote is on the list of must-reads for every person who wants to become a speculator.

Edwin Lefevre showed the stock exchange world from a completely different angle, pointing out all the nuances and subtleties of the profession. His merits are an order of magnitude higher than those of many multimillionaires, and his life path can become an excellent example for millions of future traders to follow.

Edwin Lefevre was born on January 23, 1871 in the Colombian town of Colon, which is currently under Panamanian jurisdiction. Edwin's family was very wealthy, since his father was the general agent of the Pacific Shipping Company, which provided a comfortable life for him and his mother. Since his father emigrated to the United States as a child and had to serve in Panama as a result of his service, he saw career prospects for his son only in the United States. When the boy grew up, his father finally carried out his plan and sent Edwin Lefevre USA to study at Lehigh University.

There Edwin mastered a new profession as a mining engineer, in which, by the way, he had never worked.  

Career ladder of Edwin Lefebvre

Having felt life in the states by touch, Edwin clearly saw the prospects for his development in this country and did not want to follow in his father’s footsteps. So, even at the age of 19, he showed a special interest in journalism and got a job in one of the newspapers. The editor assigned him to write a column about the stock exchange, or to be more precise, he just monitored price changes in major stocks and shared a simple summary.

Naturally, Lefebvre did not see any prospects in such an occupation, so he asked to write a test analytical article on bananas, and based on the reaction of readers, the editor would be able to draw conclusions about transferring to a more serious position. The material written by Edwin was published, but there was no reaction.

Therefore, Lefebvre began to use one little trick, namely, on behalf of the readers, he sent several letters of praise. The editor fell for this trick and transferred Edwin to the writers section. After his promotion, Edwin wrote about the stock market and interviewed many speculators.

As he worked as a journalist, Edwin became increasingly interested in the stock exchange. So, he began to actively trade and even became a broker. Because Edwin had a deep love for the pen, he wanted to share his skills with the world in new publications. However, the death of his father eliminated the need for active trading, since the inheritance he received quickly brought him into line with large investors.


In 1901, at the age of thirty, he wrote “Stories of Wall Street,” which told the story of stock speculators. Later in 1908, he published a pair of financial novels, the main characters of which were traderswho extricated themselves from certain difficult circumstances.  

In 1909, when William Howard Taft was president, Edwin was asked to try on the position of an official. So, from 1909 to 1913, Edwin Lefevre was ambassador to such European countries as France, Italy, and Spain. However, the career of a diplomat never took off, as the world was overwhelmed by the First World War.

After his job as an official was over, Edwin began to actively work with The Saturday Evening Post magazine, and his series of articles written between 1922 and 1923 inspired him to write a new financial novel.

After two years of active writing in 1925, the world saw his most famous book entitled “Memoirs of a stock speculator" This book made him one of the most famous traders, and it was translated into many languages ​​and republished several times.

Edwin Lefebvre died in 1943, but his legacy lives on to this day. It is known that both of his sons achieved enormous success in their careers, namely, one son followed in his father’s footsteps and realized himself on Walt Street, and the second became a politician. Many journalists wrote that Edwin Lefebvre's home should be made a national treasure, since the abundance of various paintings and other historical treasures reflected the richness of the US national culture.