World’s Greatest Investor Series: Part 5 – Jesse Livermore

Born is 1877 with no formal education, Livermore was a self-made man who learnt from his experience. At the age of 15 he began trading for himself, and a career of spectacular ups and downs made him an infamous trader on Wall Street. Leaving home at the age of 14 his trading career began when he moved to Boston and found work posting stock quotes for a brokerage firm named Paine Webber. Over the next several years he made thousands (a large sum in those days) betting against what are referred to as “bucket shops” which customers could illegally bet against the house on the direction of a stock price. Livermore is said to have done so well he was banned from all the bucket shops in Boston prompting him to move to New York at the age of 20 where his career really took off.