Due to hectic schedule for the past 2 months, I actually run out
of books to read on my shelf. At the end, I decided that time is just right to
visit some of the old books that I read 10 years ago. So, here I am with this
"old" book... In fact, I am pretty exciting to revisit these old
books. After all, time changes and I may not rate it as high as I rated it 10
years ago.
Ended up... amazing... this is still one of my favorite books
behind "Reminisces of Stock Operator".
The only differences perhaps lies with the facts that I started to find little
and little inspiration compares to the moment I read it 10 years back (perhaps
more than 10 years ago...). Those days, I remembered the appendix on
"Livermore's Laws and Trading Secrets Revealed" was very much
appealing to me. This time around, I actually take a glance and flip through
this topic with little interest...
On the pro side...
this book refreshed tons of sweet and bitter memories on my personal journey. I
started to appreciate what I had gone though. This book came at the right time
since I started to forget one principle that I hold since day one ~~~ "Success is just as hard to
deal with as failure." Yup...
this book reminds me that: "It was not that he could not deal
with failure - he had been dealing with failures all his life - what he could
not deal with was success."
Apart from the above
mentioned, this book is still an excellent book to explore after so many years.
Inspiration although less, but I still manage to fork out few excellent quotes
from the book:
Livermore noticed
that the novices never asked the simple questions:
- Why have u
chosen me to receive this priceless advice?
- If you have
this information, then why aren't you rich?
- What is driving
you to give me this advice to buy a stock? Are you secretly selling it to me at
higher and higher price?
- If capital
gains are easy to make, then why are you only interested in your
commissions?
Livermore always silent about his trades. If he had won, well, then he had done the right thing. If he lost, he had done the wrong thing. Why complain? Why explain?
There were some things that he could not predict, and therefore he could not guard against them. He could only react. Livermore also was convinced that there was no one powerful enough to control or fix a market for long.
Livermore loved the fact that in trading the market there was no end to the learning process. He had learned this lesson the hard way, and that was why he never considered himself a market master. He always considered himself a market student who occasionally traded correctly.
Only speculate if you can make it a full time job. Don't take any tips. Don't worry about catching tops or bottoms, that's fool's play. Keep the number of stocks you own to a controllable number.
The tape is the best means of getting tips spread.
It's not the thinking that makes the money - it's the sitting and waiting that makes the money.
The market often moves contrary to apparent common sense and world events, as if it had a mind of its own. Remember, it is designed to fool most of the people most of the time. Eventually, the truth of why it moved as it did will emerge.
One of the problems with looking too deeply into economic news is that it may plant suggestions in your mind, and suggestions can be dangerous to your emotional stock market health.
The words bull and bear cause a trader to get a fixed mind-set. And there is a good chance the speculator will blindly follow that trend of direction, even if the facts change.
I firmly believe that there are always clues as to what is going to come next. The clues are buried in the bahavior of the market - what the market actually does, the here and now -not what is predicted that it will do.
Always remember; you can win a horse, but you can't beat the races. You can win a stock, but you cannot beat Wall Street all the time. Nobody can.
I never thought my instincts were that special. In fact, I consider farmers to be the biggest gamblers in the world. Planting their crops, gambling on the price, choosing the right crop, gambling on weather and insects, the unpredictable demand - what could be more speculative? So after twenty, thirty, forty years of growing, a person naturally develops a sixth sense, an intuition, experience-based hunches about the business. I consider myself no different.
Reading this book is like reading an amazing journey by a genius. (a myth perhaps...) However, the ending part is really sad. 10 years back, I will blame the tragedy on the depression and family chaotic issues. Right now, I think the fact that speculation can bring huge success (monetary as well as status and the proud of being a speculator) indirectly causing the depression and unmanageable life style. Like I mentioned above, "Success is just as hard to deal with as failure"... every speculators with tons of experiences will realize what it means... However, it is always right to focus on the failing part. After all, it is so much easier to avoid failure than to copy various ways of successes. Having said that, this book (as well as "Reminiscence of Stock Operators") required right mentality to digest the whole story. It may bring a lot of wisdom. But, it may bring a lot of puzzles too...
Ten years back, I rated this
book at 10/10. Despite the above-mentioned flaws, I still rate this book at
10/10. Inspiration getting less... but, I benefited by triggering a lot of food
for thought throughout the whole book. Excellent story... no doubt!!!
