The article starts out with the example of Jesse Livermore, arguably, the greatest stockmarket trader in history. It goes on to say he wore the finest hand made suits, lived in a 29 room mansion, and had a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce. In the 3rd paragraph, it talks about how, despite his wealth, his life was filled with heartbreak, tragedy, and sorrow. Eventually, Mr. Livermore committed suicide.
Now, there are some things the article doesn't mention about Mr. Livermore. He was the son of a farmer. When he was 13 or 14 years old, his father pulled him out of school telling him that education was no good and he was going to have to start working on the farm. His mother, the smart lady that she was, told Jesse he was not going to be a farmer, gave him $5.00 and sent him to Boston.
Jesse got a job at a 'bucket shop' (where the man on the street could go in and trade stocks), and his job was to put the prices of the stocks on the 'tote board' as they came across the tape. He was good in math, and what he started to notice was that stocks would fluctuate between certain prices and he began to keep a record of those prices and would test his theory without any money on the line. One day, another 'pee on' in the shop asked him if he wanted to make some money on a particular stock and Jesse checked his list. It looked like a good trade, so Jesse put up half. It was a good trade and Jesse got half the profits. He was now hooked.
As he continued, he won and lost of course, but probably his greatest trade was making $100 million dollars in the crash of 1929, by selling or what is called 'shorting the market'. In fact, President Hoover sent an official to Mr. Livermore asking him to 'cover his shorts', or to buy back all the stock he had sold "for the good of the country", because the country might actually go completely bankrupt. Jesse did indeed start buying back all the stock the next day, saving the financial system from total collapse.
So what is my point? My point is, the article has a negative slant towards wealth. The events in Mr. Livermore's life have happened to many, rich and poor alike. Like what? Divorce, problems with children, money problems, depression. Would you rather have these problems as a rich man, or a poor man, because you are probably going to have them anyway.
For someone to have turned a $5.00 bill into $100 million dollars is a great accomplishment, even though he lost it all. His high points and low points in life coincided with whether he was winning or losing in the market, and that is the nature of the game. He himself knew it, and accepted it.
There is a good book which details the life of Jesse Livermore written by Richard Smitten. It's a good read, and thank you for reading this.
Warlock