10 lessons from World # 1 Stock Operator
By John Maxfield

Few stock market operators in American history continue to command as much respect and attention from modern investors as Jesse Livermore. And thanks to American journalist Edwin Lefevre's Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, a work of "fiction" that is in fact a thinly veiled biography of Livermore, we have a clear account of the notorious speculator's successes and failures.

It's no exaggeration to say this is one of the great classics of the investing genre, right alongside Henry Clews' 50 Years In Wall Street, Philip Fisher's Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, and Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor.

One of the strongest draws of the book is Livermore's fascinating life story, in which he earned and lost a half-dozen fortunes during his time on Wall Street. But beyond this, one can't help but admire the countless observations and anecdotes about the market that remain as true today as they were more than nine decades ago, when the book first went on sale. It was, after all, Livermore who said that "history repeats itself all the time in Wall Street."

It's with this in mind that I recently spent a day rereading Reminiscences of a Stock Operator in order to tease out the most interesting and applicable lessons about investing. In no particular order, then, here are 10 of the most timeless anecdotes (accompanied by quotes) that investors can learn from Livermore:

1. An investor's greatest enemy is often himself.

The speculator's chief enemies are always boring from within. It is inseparable from human nature to hope and to fear. ... The successful trader has to fight these two deep-seated instincts. He has to reverse what you might call his natural impulses. Instead of hoping he must fear; instead of fearing he must hope.
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2. It is unwise to invest in the stock market if you don't know what you're doing.

The one game of all games that really requires study before making a play is the one he goes into without his usual highly intelligent preliminary and precautionary doubts. He will risk half his fortune in the stock market with less reflection than he devotes to the selection of a medium-priced automobile.
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3. There's a lot of truth to Blaise Pascal's quote, "All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone."

There is the plain fool, who does the wrong thing at all times everywhere, but there is the Wall Street fool, who thinks he must trade all the time. No man can always have adequate reasons for buying or selling stocks daily or sufficient knowledge to make his play an intelligent play.
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