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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the banks ask Livingston to not do during the panic of 1907?

2. What does Livingston do after he sold all the stock in Union Pacific and after the earthquake?

3. What did Livingston decide to look at when thinking about what to buy or sell?

4. What happens when one places an order on Wall Street time wise?

5. Why doesn't Livingston learn the new techniques for betting on Wall Street?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens in October of 1907?

2. What's the difference between trading on Wall Street and bucket shops and how does it affect Livingston?

3. What happens to Livingston in St. Louis?

4. What concerns Livingston in 1906 and why?

5. What does Livingston do when he can't bet in Boston and how much money does he have?

6. Why does Livingston take so long to figure out the stock market and what happens then?

7. How much regulation is there in the stocks in Livingston's era and how did that affect the stocks?

8. Why does Livingston wish he had not listened to his branch manager?

9. Why does Livingston say patterns can be used and who uses them well?

10. What does the trader Roberts suggest to Livingston?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

He considers commodities down to earth and less prone to complex maneuvering than stocks. They are affected by supply and demand and conditions that don't affect stock as much.

1. Why do you think Livingston thinks the above statement is true? Use examples from the book to support your answer.

2. Having read the entire book do you think trading in commodities would be easier than in stock? Why or why not?

3. Given the differences in transportation and the wider global market do you think commodity trading has become more complex? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

This book is a work of fiction yet also a thinly disguised biography. Can a book be both fiction and non-fiction?

1. Would you classify this book as a novel or a biography? Why?

2. Research biography and fiction. Write a short essay explaining the difference.

3. Do you think a novel can have so much of the truth in it that it could be classified as non-fiction? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Livingston is flat broke and becomes ill. He goes to Chicago to recover. He wonders how he made so many mistakes. He goes back to New York.

1. What do you think the typical person would do if she/he were in Livingston's position?

2. Why do you think Livingston has continued to make mistakes in his trading? Use examples from the book to support your answer.

3. Given that Livingston is flat broke yet again, still he returns to New York. Why do you think Livingston keeps trying?

(see the answer keys)

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