Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

Set among bucket shops and the New York Stock Exchange, Edwin Lefèvre's roman a clef is narrated in the first person by a speculator called Larry Livingston. The character is modeled on the trader Jesse Livermore, and the book draws on interviews with him. The story opens with the narrator making easy money from the gap between bid and ask prices on inactive stocks, using heavy leverage. Later chapters follow his years trading on the exchange itself, and the strategies and street sense he picks up along the way. First published in 1923, it is still in print, and Alan Greenspan called it a font of investing wisdom.

Former stockbroker Michael Hebenstreit, founder of MH Themes, ranked it among the best investment books ever written, and SOSV general partner Bill Liao included it in the recommendations he gave in an interview.