A Cheerful Example

John K Clark (johnkc@well.com)
Fri, 10 Apr 1998 08:51:18 -0700 (PDT)


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PaR <par@nu-world.com> On Thu, 9 Apr 1998 Wrote:

>A few people made a lot of money by buying stocks and commodities at
>rock bottom prices after the crash of '29.

The most famous example is Jesse Livermore, by far the most successful stock
speculator of the 20's. He was born poor but starting with nothing made
30 million dollars by the end of the decade, a lot of money back then.
In 1929 he saw trouble coming and brilliantly sold off all his stocks a month
before the crash. Two weeks after the crash he thought stocks were absurdly
cheap and so got back into the market. He did well in 1930, but then the
market crashed again in 1931 to the lowest levels ever, Livermore lost
everything and was forced to declare bankruptcy. A few days later he put on
his best suit sat down on desk and wrote "MY LIFE HAS BEEN A FAILURE" several
hundred times in a notebook, then he put a gun to his head and pulled the
trigger.

I invest in the stock market myself and so far it's been good to me, but
sometimes I think of poor Jesse.

John K Clark johnkc@well.com

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