The Mozart of Speculation

If there was ever a Mozart in financial speculation, it had to be Jesse Lauriston Livermore (1877-1940). For those who do not know him, Livermore was an illustrious figure whom Time Magazine described as “the most fabulous living U.S. stock trader” of his time. Unwilling to pursue a humble life as a farmer, he ran away from home at fourteen and got a job in a stockbroker, in which he learnt a method to predict the behaviours of the market, and profited from it immensely. His biography (Lefèvre, 1923) was recommended by many great investors like Kenneth Fisher and William O’Neil, and even former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan praised it as “a font of investing wisdom”.

The “CAN SLIM” System

American businessman William J. O’Neil is one of the greatest investors of our generation. He made a fortune in the market in his twenties, enough for him to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange at thirty―the youngest ever to do so at that time. Later, he made even more so that he could quit his job and start his own business. In 1984, O’Neil launched a national business newspaper, Investor’s Business Daily, which competed directly against the formidable Wall Street Journal right from its inception, and had remained a favourite of many investors ever since. His investing strategy, known as “CAN SLIM”, is a top performer according to the American Association of Individual Investors.

As a Man Thinketh So Is He

“We ourselves are the makers of ourselves,” wrote British philosophical writer James Allen more than a hundred years ago. Allen was a successful publisher during his time, and also one of the earliest exponents of positive psychology. His most famous work, As a Man Thinketh (Allen, 1903) is a pioneering work on the personal growth genre. The title of the book was borrowed from Proverbs 23:7 of the Bible, “For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Just as the bible quote suggests, the circumstances experienced by a man is highly dependent on the beliefs and attitudes he holds in his mind.

The Secret of “The Iceman”

When it comes to defying the limit of the human body, the Dutch world record holder Wim Hof immediately springs to mind. Hof has earned himself the nickname “The Iceman” because of his immunity to extreme environments. Wearing only shorts, he climbed onto Mount Everest under harsh coldness and scarce oxygen in 2007. Two years later, again only in shorts, he completed a marathon in five and a half hours above the polar circle in Finland. In 2011, he proved that he was as good against extreme heat by completing a full marathon in the Namib Desert without drinking any water at all.