How to Trade in Stocks

Rating:
Summary: Original Livermore Content is Fabulous. Smitten's is Trash
Review: I'm not sure whether this book deserves 1 star or 5. I read the thing several times and learned a lot from it. The first few chapters (50 or so pages) are the original text from Livermore's book of 1940. The rest is an astonishingly poorly written, edited and organized 'summary' and 'expansion' of the original text.

The first 50 pages are a must-read. The rest is an irritating dog's breakfast from someone who does not appear to be terribly familiar with the stock market and trading.

Rating:
Summary: excellent stuff
Review: If you want to sit in on a seminar with one of history's greatest speculators, this book and reminiscences of a stock operator are as close as you will get. There are many golden nuggets of trading philosophy and method in this book. If you can grasp what livermore says in this book, and as he says actualy have the patience and discipline to follow it you will be well on your way to success in the financial markets. It is important to realize that this book was written 17 years after the other great book on livermore ( reminiscences of a stock operator was wriiten in 1923) This book was written in 1940, the last year of Jesse livermores life after spending 40 plus years as a professional speculator. If the wisdom of a 4 decade plus career of making and losing multiple fortunes in the stock market (which in my opinion is what this book captures)does not help you, you are most likely not cut out for success in speculation. Understaning and applying the lessons of this book will cut the learning curve of becoming a succesful speculator. As for any skeptic who is critical of this book as being old and outdated, this is simply not true. If you will read this book you will understand that the workings of the financial markets never realy change because human nature never changes, and the financial markets are a representation of human beings opinions in action. This book is not the only book you need, but in my opinion it should be in your trading library. Keep in mind that all reviews are only opinions, and as jesse livermore says in this book, "Opinions are often wrong, markets never are" so find out for yourself whether this book can help you and do not mistake an opinion for a fact.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing New
Review: This book was written over 60 years ago, the pivot point referred to in the book is simply what we call today a trend reversal. Only the first 56 pages are actually livermore`s writing, the rest of the book is all smitten trying to fill pages repeating the things livermore says in the beginning of the book. No big revelation in this book that you won`t find in any decent modern Technical analysis book. The material is a bit outdated, technical analysis has come a long way since the writing of this book. (Reminicences of a stock operator) , would give you a better idea of livermore`s philosophy on trading than this book if thats what you want.