Jesse Lauriston Livermore

Jesse Lauriston Livermore's success story is one of the most inspiring and motivating for aspiring traders.

However, by studying his biography and success story, you will learn about the dark side of the trading world, namely the consequences of abusing luck, how weak players end up, and how trading can affect your life, in both good and bad ways.

Jesse Lauriston Livermore was born into an ordinary family of farmers in 1877 in the town of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.

Realizing that the same fate awaits him and that the next person in the family who will look after this farm will naturally be Jesse, thoughts of running away from home begin to creep in from an early age.

In fact, at the age of 15, without even finishing school, Jesse persuaded his mother to help him escape and, having received five dollars from her for living expenses, jumped into the first van heading to Boston.

First acquaintance with the stock exchange

Arriving at his destination, the driver accidentally decided to stop at Payne Webber's brokerage firm. At the time, the fifteen-year-old had no plans for his life, so when he saw a brokerage job posting for a young man to write prices on a board for clients, he immediately applied.

Due to the fact that he had a simply phenomenal ability to remember numbers, Jesse became an indispensable worker in the office, because no matter how dynamic the price was, unlike the other guys, he never got confused with numbers.

It's worth noting that after only a couple of months on the job, the young man noticed that the price was moving in a wave-like pattern, often reaching the same levels. Seeing this pattern, he began actively recording all prices and levels in his notebook, compiling his first analysis.

First deal

One day, while dining in the cafeteria, a friend approached Jesse and said he had some fascinating data that suggested a potential rise in the stock. His friend didn't have enough money to enter the position, so he offered to take a share with Jesse.

The fifteen-year-old boy pulled out his price notebook and confirmed his friend's predictions, opening his first trade with him for five dollars. Two days later, Jesse made three dollars, which radically changed his worldview and attitude toward the stock market.

Luck and the first brokerage firms

Buoyed by his success, Jesse Lauriston Livermore began trading independently and actively visited brokerage firms. Incidentally, trading at brokerage firms at the time was practically betting, and the firm naturally never withdrew funds from interbank markets and played against its clients.

In many ways, this approach is similar to binary options trading , so the much-hyped new turns out to be simply a forgotten old. However, unlike other players, Jesse has found his own price pattern and is quickly starting to empty out all similar establishments.

After some time, the fifteen-year-old boy earns more than a thousand dollars a year, but at the same time, almost all the owners of similar establishments kick him out.

Moving to New York and starting a new life

Arriving in New York, young Jesse quickly increased his net worth from $1,000 to $50,000. However, luck didn't last long, and within six months, Jesse began losing money rapidly, even going so far as to incur $1,000 in debt. 

Remembering how he beat the dishonest firms, Jesse begins sending his men to similar establishments, where he quickly makes $4,000 and forgives all his debts. In 1906, Jesse Lauriston Livermore was short in a rising market when a powerful earthquake struck.

Having seized such a favorable moment, he began actively dumping his shares and, with $50,000, managed to earn $250,000. Having become quite wealthy, his luck had repeatedly run out, so no matter how quickly he made huge amounts of money, he also lost it.

He also made his first million during a serious stock market crash, but after meeting the cotton king, after some time he lost all his money.

A sad end

Anyone can fall and rise, but when such falls become a part of life, they take a heavy toll on a person's morale. Jesse Lauriston Livermore repeatedly fell from the top and then climbed back up again, but each fall and the loss of millions of dollars further eroded his inner peace.

Ultimately, unable to bear yet another bankruptcy, Jesse Lauriston Livermore committed suicide. Incidentally, all three of his wife's ex-husbands also committed suicide, which is why his death is ascribed a special mystique.