Description

Boy Plunger is the first full-length biography of the legendary share trader - Jesse Livermore, the man who dominated Wall Street in the twenties and thirties. To this day Livermore remains the most successful stock and commodities trader in the history of the stock market. Livermore became famous in the summer of 1929 when most people believed that the stock market would continue to rise forever. But he, almost alone, did not. Wall Street was enjoying an eight-year winning run that had seen the Dow Jones index increase 500 per cent from the start of the decade - an unprecedented rise. The Dow peaked at 381 on 3rd September and later that day the most respected economist of the era, Irving Fisher, declared that the rise was "permanent". Livermore vigorously disagreed and started a process that would see him sell $450 million of shares short inside a four week period. Two weeks later, the market began falling and rising again on successive days for no apparent reason. This situation endured for a month. Then came, as he had forecast, the three 'black' days: On Black Thursday 24th October, the Dow fell 11% at the opening bell, prompting chaos on the markets. The fall was stalled when leading financiers of the day clubbed together to buy huge quantities of shares. But it was short-lived succour and, over that weekend, blanket negative newspaper commentary caused the second of the 'black' days on Black Monday 28th October when the market dropped another 13%. The third 'black' day, Black Tuesday 29th October, saw the market drop a further 12%. When the dust had settled, in the aftermath of the 24th to the 29th October, Wall Street had lost $30 billion. Only much later did it become known that the man who had sold short $450 million of shares was Jesse Livermore. Livermore made nearly $100 million in personal profits and overnight became one of the richest men in the world. It remains, adjusted for inflation, the most money ever made by any individual in a period of seven days. Boy Plunger is the story of that man.