Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

About the book

Beginning as a boy who posts prices in a brokerage office, the narrator learns to watch quotations and recognize patterns in their movement. His account follows the expansion of that early fascination into a career marked by sharp reversals, experiments, large commitments, and repeated lessons in his own behavior. Brokers, market operators, rumors, and changing conditions create a world where being right about a direction does not necessarily mean making money. Edwin Lefevre gives the fictionalized reminiscence an informal, explanatory voice, allowing episodes of success and failure to become reflections on patience, pride, and self-deception. The book depicts a particular historical culture of speculation and the stories a participant tells to make sense of it.

• Speculation and psychology
• Risk and self-knowledge
• Success and reversal

Why read it

Read a vivid portrait of speculative life that pays as much attention to temperament as to transactions.

English text of Edwin Lefevre's fictionalized market reminiscence