“PROFITS ALWAYS TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES, BUT LOSSES NEVER DO”

LIVERMORE, Jesse L. How to Trade in Stocks: The Livermore Formula for Combining Time Element and Price. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, (1940). Octavo, original blue cloth. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $7000.

Rare first trade edition of the only book by Jesse Livermore, one of Wall Street’s most flamboyant stock traders, this scarce work featuring the first in-depth explanation of the famed Livermore Formula, his highly successful trading method still in use today, and containing 16 full color charts.

The only book written by Jesse L. Livermore, widely believed to be the subject of Edwin Lefevre's fictional biography and investment classic Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. One of the most flamboyant figures on Wall Street in the first half of the 20th century, Livermore made and lost several fortunes and was even blamed for the stock market crash of 1929. Intrigued by Livermore's career, financial writer Edwin Lefevre conducted weeks of interviews with him during the early 1920s. Then, in 1923, Lefevre wrote a first-person account of a fictional trader named "Larry Livingston," who bore countless similarities to Livermore, ranging from their last names to the specific events of their trading careers. Although many traders attempted to glean the secret of Livermore's success from Reminiscences, his technique was not fully elucidated until this work was published in 1940. How to Trade in Stocks offers an in-depth explanation of the Livermore Formula, the trading method, still in use today, that turned Livermore into a Wall Street icon. Also issued in a limited edition of 500 copies printed on rag paper. Without the exceptionally scarce dust jacket.

A beautiful, fine copy.