Edwin Lefevre

Many traders have made history by amassing tens of millions of dollars, but their names are forgotten year after year, as nothing remains of them except dry biographies and statistics of their successes.
In fact, in order to forever inscribe your name in the history of the stock market, it is not enough to simply own a fortune; you must leave something behind that could provide an incentive for other generations.

For example, Edwin Lefevre is familiar to almost every professional, since the book he wrote is included in the list of required reading for anyone who wants to become a speculator.

Edwin Lefevre presented the world of trading from a completely different perspective, highlighting every nuance and subtlety of the profession. His achievements are an order of magnitude greater than those of many multimillionaires, and his life's journey could serve as an excellent role model for millions of future traders.

Edwin Lefevre was born on January 23, 1871, in the Colombian town of Colon, which is now under Panamanian jurisdiction. Edwin's family was very wealthy, as his father was the general agent for the Pacific Shipping Company, which ensured a comfortable life for him and his mother. Since his father emigrated to the United States as a child and was forced to serve in Panama as part of his military service, he saw only the United States as a career path for his son. When the boy grew up, his father finally followed through with his plan and sent Edwin Lefevre to study at Lehigh University in the United States.

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

Edwin Lefevre's Career Ladder

Having experienced life in the United States, Edwin clearly saw his prospects for advancement there and didn't want to follow in his father's footsteps. Thus, at the age of 19, he showed a particular interest in journalism and applied for a job at a newspaper. The editor assigned him a column about the stock market, or more accurately, he simply monitored price changes of key stocks and shared a simple summary.

Naturally, Lefebvre saw no prospects in such a task, so he asked Edwin to write a trial analytical article on bananas, and based on the readers' reaction, the editor would decide whether to transfer him to a more serious position. Edwin's article was published, but there was no immediate response.

So Lefevre resorted to a little trick: he sent several letters of praise on behalf of his readers. The editor fell for this ruse and transferred Edwin to the writers' section. After his promotion, Edwin wrote about the stock market and interviewed many speculators.

As Edwin worked as a journalist, his interest in the stock market grew. He began actively trading and even became a broker. Edwin's passion for writing led him to want to share his skills with the world through new publications. However, his father's death eliminated the need for active trading, as his inheritance quickly elevated him to the ranks of major investors.


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

In 1909, when William Howard Taft was president, Edwin was offered a civil service position. From 1909 to 1913, Edwin Lefevre served as ambassador to European countries such as France, Italy, and Spain. However, his diplomatic career never took off, as the world was engulfed by World War I.

After finishing his work as an official, Edwin began to actively work with the magazine "The Saturday Evening Post", and a series of his 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 “Memories of a Stock Speculator"This book made him one of the most famous traders, and it was translated into many languages ​​and reprinted many times.

Edwin Lefevre died in 1943, but his legacy lives on. Both of his sons are known to have achieved tremendous success in their careers: one followed in his father's footsteps and made his mark on Wall Street, while the other became a politician. Many journalists wrote that Edwin Lefevre's home should be designated a national treasure, as the abundance of various paintings and other historical treasures reflected the richness of American national culture.