Hacker News Comments on
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
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All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this book.I don't have an answer for you, but Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is required reading for anyone interested in the history of securities markets. It's fictionalized autobiography of a legendary trader in the 1920s. It could have been written yesterday or a thousand years ago.https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Edwin-Le...
"In the olden days it was relatively common for people to begin in the mail room and work their way up to CEO. Exchange floor traders would frequently start as clerks and runners."One of the most famous examples: Jesse Livermore[1], whose Reminiscences of a Stock Operator[2] is one of the most recommended trading books ever. (I recommend it too. It's awesome.)
He never climbed the corporate ladder, but did start out writing prices on a blackboard for a brokerage. He went on to become a hugely successful trader, only to lose it all, and repeated this cycle many times.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Lauriston_Livermore
[2] - https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Edwin-Le...
This is spot on.Like the parent commenter, I was also on the same path and stopped. Despite diving into the topic for over a year, I came to the sobering realization that I had insufficient starting capital to properly manage risk.
Standard commission fees will eat you for breakfast trying to exercise a 1% (position) risk model on an insufficient amount of capital. Things like Robinhood[0] unfortunately didn't exist back then.
As far as books, Trade Your Way To Financial Freedom cannot be praised enough. Though I usually refrain from mentioning it because the title has this get-rich-quick vibe, it's nothing of the sort. Van Tharp was (and for all I know, still may be) the world's premier trading psychologist. The book drives home the concept of risk management in automated trading systems like no other, especially remarkable considering when it was written.
The Market Wizards books, at least the first two, are pretty much required reading.
The only book I might add to the list would be Reminiscences of a Stock Operator[1]. While admittedly I didn't find it as useful as the other books, it's still a good read and widely considered to be the seminal book on trading.
[0] https://www.robinhood.com/
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Edwin-Lef...