De LA Vega's Confusion of Confusions Free PDF

zghorner

zghorner

A treat for any of you history lovers. This was written in 1688 and is the oldest known book on stock speculation. Enjoy

https://www.gwern.net/docs/economics/1688-delavega-confusionofconfusions.pdf

PS: A little tip for anyone like me that prefers to read on a tablet...download the "google play books" app and you can upload all of your pdf books onto it. there are a few benefits but the biggest is that it will save your place for a long period of time...

PSS: No, this book wont help you trade any better.
 
Here's some more info about the author and the book:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_de_la_Vega
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Joseph de la Vega
José or Joseph Penso de la Vega, best known as Josseph de la Vega (ca. 1650 — Amsterdam, November 13, 1692), was a Sephardi Jewish merchant in diamonds, financial expert, moral philosopher and poet, residing in 17th century Amsterdam.[1] He became famous for his masterpiece Confusion of Confusions. Vega's work is the first study written about the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and its participants, the shareholders.[2] In a stilted style he describes the whole gamut, running from options (puts and calls), futures contracts, margin buying, to bull and bear conspiracies, even some form of stock-index trading.[3] The publication of Confusion de Confusiones helped lay the foundations for modern fields of technical analysisand behavioral finance.
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Confusion of Confusions (1688)
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Confusion de Confusiones remained little known until the German economist Richard Ehrenberg published an influential essay in the 1892 Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, “Die Amsterdame Aktienspekulation un 17. Jarhhundert.”[24] According to L. Petram the amount of attention he paid to tricks and schemes is out of proportion; there is too much drama and technical shortcomings to qualify it as a manual. He wrote Confusión for the entertainment of educated members of the Sephardic community (Academia de los Floridos).[25]
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Fascinating to see that options were common back in the 1600's. Also funny that the same basic principles the author recommends are nearly identical to the trading "rules" of today.

“There is nothing new in Wall Street. There can’t be because speculation is as old as the hills. Whatever happens in the stock market today has happened before and will happen again.” - Jesse Livermore.
 
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