Lefevre has a straight forward manner to his lifestyle and his trading style. He is aware primarily where the market as a whole is headed. How he decides this remains a mystery. Secondarily the 'tale of the tape' is considered. Possibly his best source of information on a particular stock is to buy or sell a chunk of it and observe the market's reaction to it.

He distinguishes speculation to investing and says he is a speculator, not an investor. An investor expects steady gains. A speculator can identify and ride swings in the market.

He buys and sells in seperate but rapid blocks, looking at the aveage of a sale of 1000 at 95, 2000 at 93, and 1000 at 92. He tells a couple stories of being very wrong on a trade, and realizing where he went wrong, will go just as deep into the same stock in the other direction in a moment.

The first part of the book is about 'bucket shops' and how the lag between the stocks actual price and the price the shop trades on, the last ticker price, gave certain people tremendous control. The same is true today except its measures in milliseconds. He also says, and this is in the 1920s or 30s, that most every movement in a stock is an intentional manipulation.