Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

Why it’s on the list: Edwin Lefèvre’s 1923 thinly fictionalised account of the career of the speculator Jesse Livermore — the classic first-person story of trading, market psychology and the lessons of repeated ruin.

Where I heard about it

• On Investing Book List (Gavin Baker), Gavin Baker’s May 2020 investing book list (under Investing): he likes the annotated version.
• A Goldman Sachs reading list — on its recommended reading list (careers site), under Industry Background and Flavor, shared by @F_Compounders on X in July 2025.
• Replies to @WillManidis — named in the replies to his question “what is the single best book you can read that will explain an entire industry?”, June 2025. The full list lives on what is the single best book… (tweet).
• Li Lu — on Li Lu’s Recommended Book List, under Value Investing, Finance, and Capitalism.
• Recommended in Jim O’Shaughnessy’s investing book-recommendations thread on X (started February 2019, extended through 2021); in April 2020 — 1 Some book recommendations Rules… (tweet).
• In Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s A Curriculum for the Modern Investor, saved by Kyle in April 2020 — A Curriculum for the Modern Investor (Patrick O’Shaughnessy).

Connections

• 1 Some book recommendations Rules… (tweet) — recommended it.
• Edwin Lefèvre — author.
• Goldman Sachs Recommended reading list… (tweet) — the list this came from.
• what is the single best book… (tweet) — recommendation #2: named in this crowd-sourced thread.