My Inspirative TOP Traders and their Massive Fortunes

Throught the Years - Stories of Success, Win and Loss in the Stock Market

People who look for easy money invariably pay for the privilege of proving conclusively that it cannot be found on this earth. This is one of the most fundamental rules of stock market success. We would like to introduce our readers to the stories of three of the most prominent figures in the stock market of all time, starting with the early days of the 19th century and ending with a contemporary stock market entrepreneur. These are all stories about fabulous wealth, risk taking, intelligence and competitive spirit.

1. Jesse Livermore - Probably the Greatest Stock Trader who Ever Lived

Jesse L. Livermore is a legendary stock trader and one of the success models that helped with the development and popularization of stock trading as a whole.  He was nicknamed "boy plunger" at an early age due to his aggressive risk taking through large stock trades.  His claim to fame was amassing fortunes on Wall Street during the crash of 1929.  Even through all his successes trading the stock market, Livermore was unfortunately also known to have a difficult time maintaining personal relationships and ultimately lost his entire fortune.
Success formula
His career was impressive and fascinating; he started off as a board boy in the gambling industry only to end up becoming Wall Street's most influential trader fifteen years later.  By the age of 15, Jesse Livermore had already made $1000 (a rather important amount of money for 1890) by investing in the stock market solely through hunches and assumptions. 

Livermore is widely known to have made no less than $3,000,000 in one day during the financial market meltdown of October 1929, crashing the market into oblivion by short-selling stocks.
What happened to his fortune:
Enjoying a very lavish lifestyle and reportedly being very unstable both mentally and professionally, Jesse Livermore had in fact gone bankrupt and broke three times in his career. He made an immense fortune right before the great depression, but also lost money with ease. He owned several mansions around the world, fully staffed with servants and a fleet of limousines and he was quick to renounce his life partners for new women he met. In a moment of despair and depression, he shot himself dead in a hotel room in Manhattan.  He left behind $5,000,000 worth of cash, assets and stock and a good bye note addressed to his third and last wife.  Ironically, she herself had married four times before to husbands who all committed suicide.

Jesse Livermore in figures:
$100 million - Jesse Livermore was worth that amount of money at the peak of his career in 1929. In today's money that would be close to $13.7 billion; 3 - of his direct descendants (daughter, son and grandchild) ended their lives prematurely in poisonous gas suicides; 14 - the genius investor left his father's household and got his very first job at that age.

2. Nicolas Darvas - Professional Dancer and Self-Taught Investor

One of the most prominent and controversial figures of the stock market trading scene in the 1950s, Nicolas Darvas and his story are a referential point in the history of this business. Starting off as a world-famous dancer, he ended up making a seven figure fortune in a matter of years, being the center of attention for publications like Time Magazine. Success formula
Nicolas Darvas was often described as unusually ambitious and strong-willed so although he started off ignorant, but he made sure he didn't stay that way. Before he ever invested any money into the stock market, he spent his years on the road from one dancing gig to another reading and researching the various aspects of the business. Later on, when he started investing, he would gather all the available information on the company who's shares he was about to buy or sell. His famous and innovative stock selection method was called the BOX theory. He considered a stock price wave as a series of boxes and waited at the time when the stock price was "confined" in a box and only bought when the price rose out of the box. He simultaneously set a stop-loss just under this trade price. Recommended read: the original 1960 Time article about Nicolas Darvas. What happened to his fortune:
Towards the end of his amazing life as a stock market trader, Nicolas Darvas invested in other fields, such as the fashion industry and real estate, which in the early 1970s was a very wise thing to do. He died a rich man in 1977,after retaining and increasing his wealth in both stock trading and other business ventures.

Nicolas Darvas in figures:
23 - was the age when Nicolas Darvas fled communist Hungary with a fake visa and went on to become a successful dancer; $2,450,000.00 - the amount of money he made in 18 months starting in 1957 with a $10,000 investment; 5 - is the number of specialty advice books he wrote between 1960 and 1977 (the year of his death), making him not only a very successful trader, but one of the most sought after authors in the stock market business.

3. Richard Dennis - Back from the Bottom of the Pit

A man of his own trading style, Richard Dennis is a modern superstar on the stock market scene. His stories of success and failure have been followed closely by millions of people interested in the stock market and his legendary accomplishments have earned him a spot in the trading hall of fame. His rather scholarly and scientific way of working the market has turned into innovative projects like the turtles, a group of young investors working together, making and controlling millions. Success formula
Starting off with $1,600 of borrowed money, he turned that amount into a whopping $200,000,000 in a matter of ten years.  However, he reportedly lost much more than that when he started trading with his clients' money; the financial and emotional pain forced him to retire for several years.

In 1996 he came back to the stock market and commodity trading business with a new approach, using complicated computer programs and databases and making predictions and investments based on odds; instead of thoughts, theories and impulses. He's also famous for believing that it doesn't take exceptional talent to succeed in the business, but rather proper training and discipline, a point he proved in every possible aspect by selecting two groups of people called the Turtles and teaching them the system. It turned out that his learners could turn one million into several in a matter of years. What happened to his fortune:
Like most people at the top of the trading business, Dennis has made and lost considerable fortunes. He's been known to support unpopular causes like marijuana legalization and has declared that he has given away a little over $30 million in supporting violence victims shelters and political campaigns. The amount of money he controls nowadays is below the $100 million mark.

Richard Dennis in figures:
$8 million - the amount of money Richard Dennis lost in one day as a consequence of a bad decision; 111% - was the profit that Richard Dennis turned for his investments in 1996, making him the top performing investment advisor at the time; $400 - was the initial amount of money Richard Dennis had available for his first trades.

So there you have it. Stock market success is not exactly winning the lottery, although it's obvious that a fair amount of luck is required. But training, determination and skills are crucial for success

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