jesse l livermore was a noted stock trader at the turn of the 20th century despite his lack of formal education he began his career at age 14 regarded as a wall street legend livermore has influenced generations of stock and commodity traders 
livermore is the author of how to trade stocks and my life in wall street and how i made three fortunes in the stock market jesse l livermore died by suicide on nov 28 1940 1investopedia alison czinkotaearly life and educationjesse l livermore was born on july 26 1877 in shrewsbury massachusetts raised in poverty livermore attended only elementary school at age 14 he joined paine webber co in boston as a board boy livermore copied share prices onto a blackboard from the ticker tape recordings from the stock exchange the stock traderin his book jesse livermore boy plunger the man who sold america short in 1929 tom rubython describes livermore as the man who made the most money in a single day and the man who lost the most money in a single day between 1900 and 1940 jesse livermore made and lost three fortunes livermore bought and held during bull markets and sold when market momentum shifted his strategy was uncanny when considering that companies did not publish financial statistics or conduct fundamental analyses livermore s first trade at the age of 15 gleaned a profit of 3 12 by age 16 he had quit his job at paine webber co and began trading on his own at the time trades were often conducted at bucket shops where customers gambled on stock prices often using high degrees of leverage when banned from boston s bucket shops because of his consistent success livermore moved to new york city 1the bear of wall streetjesse l livermore garnered credit on wall street for predicting market drops earning the nickname the bear of wall street 2 his two noted trades occurred during the panic of 1907 and at the start of the great depression as a market bubble expanded in 1906 livermore followed the long trend until instinct advised him otherwise in a famous trade livermore shorted union pacific stock and netted a 300 000 profit two days later when an earthquake struck san francisco the market plunged in 1907 and livermore followed the advice of j p morgan and bought while others sold traders followed suit and livermore is credited with aiding an early recovery in the market 3in 1929 livermore was well positioned in the stock market but looked for the first signs of weakness as another market bubble loomed in several small trades livermore sold his long positions by probing short bets into the market in doing so he lost close to 250 000 livermore however continued to build a short position and on black tuesday oct 29 1929 livermore reportedly made 100 million on his great depression short 3according to reports livermore s peak wealth would equate to 1 5 billion today he traded freely and unregulated until the launch of the securities and exchange commission sec in 1934 which marked the beginning of the end for livermore 4 by 1940 livermore was bankrupt who did jesse l livermore influence noting livermore s experiences chronicled in the book reminiscences of a stock operator by edwin lefevre william j o neil the founder of investor s business daily wrote in my 45 years of experience in this business i have only found 10 or 12 books that were of any real value and reminiscences is one of them today many in the market know jesse livermore from the pseudonymous twitter account of the same name where the strategies of jesse livermore are discussed and advised 