In 1999, the New York Times launched a vote for the "first person in the US stock market in 100 years", and the final winner was a man named Jesse Livermore, who had been dead for nearly 60 years.
Many people may not know who he is, but on Wall Street in the United States, he can be said to be known to everyone, he used speculation in the early 90s, spent a few years from the bottom of the society to a rich man, in 1929 ushered in the peak of his life, he shorted the entire U.S. stock market, 7 days to earn 100 million US dollars (equivalent to 724 million yuan now).
But such a top hero, but when he was 63 years old, he shot himself in his cloakroom, and left a last word: "My life is a failure." ”
Why did he sigh so much, and what led him to the path of suicide? Let's take a look!
1. Sharp
Livermore was born into a poor family in Massachusetts, USA. He has been very smart since he was a child, and he can learn three years of knowledge in one year in school, but his talent in learning did not attract his father's attention. His father asked Livermore to drop out of school and work on the grounds that he couldn't afford to pay his tuition.
Livermore did not complain, he firmly believed that as long as it was a piece of gold, it could shine anywhere. With a few dollars from his family, he soon found a securities-related job in Boston. In the course of his work, he was exposed to knowledge about stocks, and he also discovered that he had a knack for memorization.
He only needs to look at the stock market data once to remember it deeply in his mind. Livermore felt that he had this ability, and it would be a shame not to put it to good use.
So they found a like-minded friend, and the two jointly invested five dollars to buy a stock to test the waters, and under Livermore's operation, they quickly made a profit, and according to the proportion of the investment, Livermore made a net profit of $3.12.
$3.12 isn't much, but he gives Livermore a huge amount of confidence. Believing that he was a natural hand at playing with stocks, Livermore continued to work with his friends, making $1,000 in just a few months.
This is much more than what he made working in the company, so he simply quit his job and devoted himself to the stock market.
He is good at using "shorting" to make money, people who may not play stocks do not know the meaning of shorting, simply put, it is to sell the stock, and then when the stock price falls to the bottom, buy it back, and then return it to the original seller, from which to earn the difference.
This sounds very simple, but it is not easy to implement, you need to judge when the stock will fall, and then seize the opportunity to buy, even if you don't play stocks, you know that the rise and fall of stocks is affected by many factors, it is difficult to predict, so although the short is a high return, it also has a high-risk attribute.
If you are not careful, you are likely to go bankrupt.
Although Livermore is talented, he cannot escape the fate of losing money. In the first few months of his entry into the stock market, he had been making money, but after half a year, he lost all the money he earned.
But Livermore didn't back down, he relied on the borrowed $500 to re-enter the stock market, and in a few months, he doubled his capital 20 times by shorting, and made $10,000 in blood.
At that time, $10,000 was a very large fortune, and Livermore not only achieved a small success in his career, but also had love. He married a woman named Netty Jordan, and after marriage, he was still active in the stock market, he relied on accurate eyes, bought the right stocks, and his assets increased several times, close to $50,000, but soon after, he lost all his family fortune due to a wrong decision.
Five years later, in early 1907, he reached his first peak.
2. Behind bars
Livermore seized the opportunity of the stock market crash and made $3 million by shorting, which was Livermore's battle for fame.
J. Morgan & Co.'s founder, J. Morgan & Co. P. Morgan, a billionaire billionaire, ran to Livermore and begged him to stop shorting, fearing that the stock market would completely collapse because of Livermore's operation.
It is really jaw-dropping that a poor boy has grown into an existence that even the king of Wall Street trembles in a few years after entering the stock market!
But what is even more jaw-dropping is that Livermore experienced another bankruptcy only one year later, and this time, he lost not to the stock market, but to cotton.
Livermore believed the words of a cotton merchant, but the result was beyond his expectations, he was good at shorting, he tasted the taste of being shorted, and the cotton merchant operated to let his funds be trapped, and he not only lost all the money he earned before, but even took on a lot of debts.
When he was at his worst, his wife Nettie Jordan was still far away from him. Nettie Jordan was already dissatisfied with his stock speculation, and repeatedly advised him not to do this kind of speculation, but he didn't listen, so Netty Jordan had a lot of opinions about him.
Moreover, Livermore has a very fatal flaw: lustful.
When he was worth $50,000, he had already begun to float, and even though he had a wife, he still used the money to pick up girls and gamble. Later, after losing all his money after failing to invest in the stock market, Livermore came to Netty Jordan and asked her to sell her jewelry for some money, and he took it to make a comeback. Nettie Jordan didn't agree, and they had a violent argument.
So the two sides have already had a very unhappy quarrel, in a state of separation, and his third bankruptcy was just the last straw that broke the camel's back, making Nettie Jordan completely disappointed in him and filing for divorce from him.
After the divorce, Livermore not only did not reflect on his mistakes, but let himself go even more.
Because of his outstanding ability, there are many people who are willing to lend him money to make a comeback, so he soon got a lot of capital and invested it in the stock market.
This time, his operation not only made the entire Wall Street tremble, but also shocked the whole United States. Because on October 24, 1907, he shorted the entire stock market, and the American stock market ushered in a big collapse, from which he grabbed $100 million in fortune!
On that day, stockholders, bankers, and traders were all dumbfounded, they looked at the collapsed stock market but were powerless to recover, and later it was a number of banks that frantically injected capital into it to save the stock market.
After this war, he won many bluffing titles, some called him "the big short on Wall Street", and some called him "the king of the stock market". He also had a more luxurious life than before, he bought a mansion, a huge yacht, and held banquets in the mansion when he had nothing to do, inviting many beautiful women to attend.
His lust also began to become known.
When he was 40 years old, he knew a beautiful woman named Dorothy, and Livermore immediately launched a crazy pursuit of her, Dorothy knew that this man was very sweet, but Livermore assured her that he would love him with all his heart, and she saw that Livermore was sincere, so she agreed to marry him.
But not long after they were together, Livermore forgot his oath and left Dorothy to dry out and go outside to mess with flowers, which caused Dorothy to suffer from alcoholism, which he relied on to relieve his grief.
One day, Dorothy accidentally shot the child she had with Livermore while drunk, although it didn't hit the vital point, but the child was also disabled for life, Livermore was very angry and filed for divorce from Dorothy.
Livermore's second relationship ended in tragedy, and 16 years later, Livermore began the third and final relationship in his life. He married an American singer named Harriet Mays, but the two had a poor relationship after their marriage.
I believe everyone can guess the reason, or because Livermore is distracted, because of his unsmooth love life, Livermore later also suffered from depression, became irritable and irritable, and quarreled with Mace for three days.
Eventually, Livermore suffered a major depressive episode and suddenly shot himself. He was 63 years old.
3. The meaning of failure
The news of Livermore's death triggered a major earthquake on Wall Street. No one thought that a man who was in the stock market would die in such a miserable way.
In fact, his death was not just caused by emotional discord and depression. Before his death, his career was close to collapse, in 1934, he was in poor mental state and other reasons, investment failed one after another, the fourth time to go bankrupt, although he regrouped and made a comeback, but he also found that he was a little powerless.
This time it was like a return to the past, shortly before his suicide in 1940, several of his investments failed and his assets continued to shrink. But the emaciated camel is bigger than a horse, and after his death, he still left an inheritance of 5 million US dollars, which is already a huge wealth for ordinary people.
At this time, looking back at his last words, he said that his life was a failure, in fact, it was not Versailles, what he said was indeed the truth. We can't ignore his failures, his life, 4 career failures, 3 emotional failures, and failures throughout his life.
But the reason why he was able to become the "king of speculation" and become a giant on Wall Street was precisely because he admitted the failure of his career and dared to face his failure. Some people have collapsed after experiencing failure, but he was able to persevere in overcoming several obstacles, and it was his courage, wisdom and perseverance that dared to start all over again, which allowed him to have a highlight moment.
But we can't deny that he didn't face up to his emotional failures, as described in his biography: when he lost money, he would lock himself in a room and think about his mistakes, but when he had a conflict with his wife, he didn't reflect on his own problems.
Perhaps, it is a person whose energy is limited. In any case, his spirit in his career is still worth learning from everyone.