Nothing new happens on Wall Street. The writer Edwin Lefèvre published a book inspired by legendary stock trader Jesse Livermore nearly 100 years ago – and it remains a source of timeless business wisdom today. Here are the sharpest insights in a nutshell…

A “Wall Street fool” is someone who thinks they need to be trading constantly. There is no good reason to do this. The drive to make deals regardless of the climate is why Wall Street sees so many big losses. Sitting, not thinking, is what makes you big money.

There’s only one side to the stock market. It’s not the bull or the bear side; it’s the right side. It took Lefèvre five years to learn how to play the “right” way. The key is trusting your judgment. No tip can make you more money than a well-developed instinct.

Being broke is an efficient form of education. There’s no better way to learn what not to do than losing everything you have. Studying your mistakes is a profitable business. Once you know how to avoid losing money, you start realizing what you need to do to win big.

Stock speculation isn’t about being a math whiz or following a set of rigid principles. You just need to appraise conditions. If a stock is behaving strangely, don’t go near it unless you can identify the problem. “No diagnosis, no prognosis. No prognosis, no profit.”

Don’t focus on individual fluctuations. Nobody can catch them all. It’s the bigger picture – being able to size up which way the wider market is trending – that pays dividends. The underlying conditions are your greatest allies.

One of the most expensive mistakes that traders make is having a bias for round numbers, i.e. buying stock for $40.10 (for example) and selling as close as possible to $41. Forget about trying to catch the last eighth of a dollar. It will cost you big.

Stick with your position. Even a wise trader can grow impatient or doubtful when the market takes too long to do its thing. But don’t be shaken by setbacks; they may be inevitable but they’re only temporary.

Buying stocks on a rising market is the most comfortable strategy. Don’t worry about buying as cheap as possible or going short at top prices. Stocks are never too high to buy or too low to sell. It’s all about timing. Just don’t make a second transaction until the first one turns a profit.

When you’re bearish and selling stock, each sale must be at a lower level than the previous one. When buying, the reverse is true. Always buy on a rising scale. Nobody can sell stocks unless somebody wants them, so remember to sell when you can, not when you want to.