The Story of Money: The trader who made $100mn from the 1929 crash — only to lose it all

Today, we're bringing you an episode from another podcast in the FT stable: The Story of Money.

Jesse Livermore was a legendary trader who made and lost several fortunes in the early 20th century, most famously by shorting the Wall Street crash of 1929. His early life was immortalised in the roman à clef Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre, and his trading insights and stunning successes continue to inspire professional traders and would-be traders to this day. But his life also contains cautionary tales about the ease with which success can morph into failure, and what happens when the buzz of the markets is no longer enough. Host Robin Wigglesworth and the FT's US financial commentator Robert Armstrong explore the extraordinary life of the greatest day trader in history.

Watch, listen and subscribe to The Story of Money for free on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, at ft.com/tsom or wherever you get your podcasts.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of suicide and mental health.

Further reading:

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (1923), Edwin Lefèvre

1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation (2025), Andrew Ross Sorkin 

Credits: Getty Images, The New York Times 

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, also on the show's dedicated YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@FTTheStoryOfMoney 

Learn more at www.ft.com/tsom or get in touch at [email protected].

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producer: Michela Tindera 

Executive Producer: Manuela Saragosa

Original music and sound design: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

FT Global Head of Audio: Flo Phillips 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.