Jubilee Prosperity

On 7 March 1934, bankrupt Mr Livermore, one of the greatest traders of all time, was automatically suspended from his member of the Chicago Board of Trade.

He was aged, crushed and heartbroken from cumulative financial and personal losses.

At one point Mr Livermore lost several days of his life and awoke in a hotel room with amnesia from what doctors diagnosed as a nervous breakdown.

In late 1939, Livermore’s son, Jesse Jr., suggested to his 62 year-old father that he write a book about his experiences and techniques for trading the stock and commodity markets.

This brought life back to Livermore.

His book was completed and published by Duell, Sloan and Pearce in March 1940.

Titled How To Trade In Stocks, it was later imitated by a 1954 bestseller during the post World War II Baby boomer Bull Market called How to Buy Stocks, that sold 7 million copies with 8 editions, recopyrighted in 1994.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Buy-Stocks-Louis-Engel/dp/0316353809

Livermore’s book did not sell well, ironically because of bad market timing.

World War II was underway, and general confidence and interest in the stock market were low.

Livermore’s trend methods were still new and controversial at the time. 20 years ago Richard Dennis and his Turtle Trading Group made over $375 million in five years trading trending markets.

http://www.turtletrading.com/

JL’s pioneer momentum trend following work received mixed reviews from stock market gurus of the period like Benjamin Graham who bought and held value for a margin of safety to cope with the Great Depression.

On November 28, 1940, at the age of 63, Livermore shot and killed himself in the cloakroom of the Sherry Netherlands Hotel in Manhattan.

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