{
  "id": "what-i-learned-losing-a-million-dollars",
  "shelfNumber": "10",
  "title": "What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars",
  "subtitle": "",
  "authors": [
    "Jim Paul",
    "Brendan Moynihan"
  ],
  "firstPublished": "1994",
  "firstPublicationNote": "WorldCat's original print record identifies Infrared Press, Nashville, ©1994. The current Columbia edition is a 2013 reissue, not the original publication.",
  "kind": "Autobiographical trading account and argument about decision-making under loss",
  "themes": [
    "power",
    "attention"
  ],
  "theme": "oxblood",
  "layout": "gate",
  "tagline": "The loss. The belief. The revision.",
  "dek": "Paul and Moynihan revisit a trader's experience of a large loss and ask how confidence, attachment and judgment interact. Read the personal account beside the authors' explanations, keeping the difference between a vivid case and a general claim in view.",
  "art": {
    "src": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/what-i-learned-losing-a-million-dollars.webp",
    "alt": "A quiet dark desk with a small unmarked balance and folded ivory paper, lit by a restrained copper glow.",
    "width": 1536,
    "height": 1024,
    "caption": "Original AI-generated atmosphere for PointCast. Not a book cover, archival image or historical document."
  },
  "context": {
    "heading": "A remembered decision deserves a second look.",
    "paragraphs": [
      "Paul and Moynihan revisit a trader's experience of a large loss and ask how confidence, attachment and judgment interact. Read the personal account beside the authors' explanations, keeping the difference between a vivid case and a general claim in view.",
      "Originally issued in 1994 and reissued by Columbia in 2013, the book joins a retrospective personal account to an argument about the psychology of losses. Its historical case can prompt questions about evidence and judgment; neither the account nor this companion establishes a reliable way to earn money or prevent losses.",
      "Read this as a historical account and argument about loss, not a trading method or promise of returns."
    ],
    "sourceIds": [
      "original-worldcat",
      "columbia-hardcover",
      "columbia-academic"
    ]
  },
  "authorNote": {
    "text": "Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan join a personal account to an argument about the psychology of loss. Read the remembered experience and its proposed explanation as related parts of a book, then ask what evidence each can provide.",
    "sourceIds": [
      "original-worldcat",
      "columbia-hardcover"
    ]
  },
  "entryPoints": [
    {
      "id": "experience",
      "label": "Experience",
      "title": "Separate the event from the explanation.",
      "prompt": "Keep two columns: what happened in the account, and what the authors infer from it. Notice when the distinction becomes difficult."
    },
    {
      "id": "confidence",
      "label": "Confidence",
      "title": "Watch a belief become attached.",
      "prompt": "Follow one moment when earlier success affects a later judgment. What new information becomes harder to hear?"
    },
    {
      "id": "evidence",
      "label": "Evidence",
      "title": "Ask what a case can establish.",
      "prompt": "Choose a general claim and ask what evidence beyond this remembered experience could support or challenge it."
    }
  ],
  "pathways": [
    {
      "label": "First encounter",
      "title": "First encounter.",
      "text": "Read the personal account before judging the proposed explanation. Keep two columns: what happened and what the authors infer from it."
    },
    {
      "label": "Read critically",
      "title": "Read critically.",
      "text": "Choose one general claim. Ask what evidence beyond the remembered experience would support or challenge it."
    },
    {
      "label": "Across the shelf",
      "title": "Across the shelf.",
      "text": "Compare the book's treatment of confidence with a reported corporate history. Notice how retrospective explanation differs from what a participant could have known at the time."
    }
  ],
  "editions": [
    {
      "id": "columbia-hardcover-2013",
      "label": "Columbia hardcover",
      "format": "Hardcover",
      "publisher": "Columbia University Press / Columbia Business School Publishing",
      "isbn": "9780231164689",
      "publicationDate": "2013-04",
      "pages": 192,
      "extras": "Foreword by Jack Schwager; preface to the Columbia edition; notes and bibliography are listed by the publisher. Publication date is verified to the month; digital platform dates may differ. The publisher lists 192 pages; some other records give 208.",
      "why": "A physical copy of the Columbia reissue, with the new edition preface and foreword.",
      "sourceId": "columbia-hardcover",
      "links": [
        {
          "kind": "new",
          "label": "View publisher edition",
          "url": "https://cup.columbia.edu/book/what-i-learned-losing-a-million-dollars/9780231164689/",
          "note": "External discovery route. Check ISBN, format, seller, condition, delivery and current terms. No price, stock, fulfillment or affiliation is asserted."
        },
        {
          "kind": "used",
          "label": "Compare used copies by ISBN",
          "url": "https://www.abebooks.com/9780231164689/What-Learned-Losing-Million-Dollars-0231164688/plp",
          "note": "External discovery route. Check ISBN, format, seller, condition, delivery and current terms. No price, stock, fulfillment or affiliation is asserted."
        },
        {
          "kind": "borrow",
          "label": "Find a licensed library ebook",
          "url": "https://www.overdrive.com/media/1275972/",
          "note": "Borrowing requires an eligible card at a participating library that licenses the title. Formats, holds, loan periods and availability vary. This ebook route does not establish a local holding of the selected print ISBN."
        }
      ],
      "translator": "Not applicable — English original"
    },
    {
      "id": "columbia-ebook-2013",
      "label": "Columbia ebook",
      "format": "Licensed ebook; EPUB and OverDrive Read verified in library record",
      "publisher": "Columbia University Press",
      "isbn": "9780231535236",
      "publicationDate": "2013-04",
      "pages": 192,
      "extras": "Columbia edition foreword, prefaces and bibliography appear in the publisher/platform contents. Publication date is verified to the month; digital platform dates may differ. Ebook pagination varies. No consumer ebook purchase or secondhand-digital route is offered.",
      "why": "A digital alternative through a participating library or institution, useful for reading alongside notes.",
      "sourceId": "columbia-academic",
      "links": [
        {
          "kind": "borrow",
          "label": "Find a licensed library ebook",
          "url": "https://www.overdrive.com/media/1275972/",
          "note": "Title route verified. Generic record displays the print ISBN; local format metadata confirms ebook ISBN 9780231535236. Borrowing requires an eligible card at a participating library that licenses the title. Formats, holds, loan periods and availability vary. This ebook route does not establish a local holding of the selected print ISBN."
        },
        {
          "kind": "borrow",
          "label": "Check institutional access at JSTOR",
          "url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/paul16468",
          "note": "Requires an institution or other licensed entitlement with access to this title; this is not an open full-text or public-domain route."
        }
      ],
      "translator": "Not applicable — English original"
    }
  ],
  "digitalRoutes": [],
  "rightsNote": "This modern book remains copyrighted. Read a purchased or lawfully borrowed copy. Licensed institutional access has separate eligibility conditions.",
  "readerNote": "Read this as a historical account and argument about loss, not a trading method or promise of returns.",
  "deeper": {
    "themes": [
      {
        "title": "Experience and inference",
        "text": "Which remembered success changes the meaning of a later decision?"
      },
      {
        "title": "Confidence under pressure",
        "text": "Where do the authors move from one person's experience to a general claim?"
      },
      {
        "title": "The view from afterward",
        "text": "What evidence would distinguish an error in analysis from a refusal to revise a belief?"
      }
    ],
    "questions": [
      "How does retrospective narration affect the confidence of an explanation?",
      "Which terms need clearer definitions before a claim could be tested?",
      "What remains unexplained by the account?"
    ]
  },
  "series": null,
  "related": [
    {
      "title": "Atomic Habits",
      "url": "/books/atomic-habits/",
      "why": "Compare two accounts of repeated behavior and the limits of a memorable rule."
    },
    {
      "title": "Barbarians at the Gate",
      "url": "/books/barbarians-at-the-gate/",
      "why": "Compare retrospective personal explanation with reported institutional history."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "original-worldcat",
      "label": "WorldCat — original Infrared edition",
      "url": "https://search.worldcat.org/title/31695890?tab=details",
      "type": "Primary library catalog",
      "note": "Both authors, print book, English, Infrared Press Nashville ©1994. Local holdings vary."
    },
    {
      "id": "columbia-hardcover",
      "label": "Columbia University Press — hardcover edition",
      "url": "https://cup.columbia.edu/book/what-i-learned-losing-a-million-dollars/9780231164689/",
      "type": "Primary publisher record",
      "note": "ISBN 9780231164689, April 2013, hardcover, 192 pages, both authors and foreword contributor. Contents support the Columbia preface, notes and bibliography."
    },
    {
      "id": "columbia-academic",
      "label": "Columbia Scholarship Online — digital title record",
      "url": "https://academic.oup.com/columbia-scholarship-online/book/13135",
      "type": "Primary licensed publisher platform",
      "note": "Print ISBN 9780231164689, online ISBN 9780231535236, both authors, publisher and April 30, 2013 platform publication."
    },
    {
      "id": "columbia-jstor",
      "label": "JSTOR — Columbia ebook record",
      "url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/paul16468",
      "type": "Primary licensed publisher platform",
      "note": "192 pages, 2013 copyright, EISBN 9780231535236, both authors. Access is subject to a licensed entitlement; not public-domain text."
    },
    {
      "id": "learned-overdrive",
      "label": "OverDrive — library discovery",
      "url": "https://www.overdrive.com/media/1275972/",
      "type": "Library discovery service",
      "note": "Specific title and Columbia ebook route identified. Generic record displays print ISBN and only Jim Paul in author field; publisher and local library records establish both authors and actual ebook ISBN."
    },
    {
      "id": "learned-ferguson",
      "label": "Ferguson Library — ebook format metadata",
      "url": "https://stamford.overdrive.com/media/1275972",
      "type": "Primary public-library catalog",
      "note": "Both authors; Columbia University Press; April 2, 2013 release; EPUB/OverDrive Read ISBN 9780231535236."
    },
    {
      "id": "learned-used",
      "label": "AbeBooks — matching Columbia hardcover ISBN",
      "url": "https://www.abebooks.com/9780231164689/What-Learned-Losing-Million-Dollars-0231164688/plp",
      "type": "Verified retailer access route",
      "note": "Matching ISBN and hardcover metadata; used listings identified. No prices, stock, condition or fulfillment claims saved."
    }
  ],
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-03",
  "canonical": "https://pointcast.xyz/books/what-i-learned-losing-a-million-dollars/",
  "artworkProvenance": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/provenance.json",
  "commerce": "External discovery links. Providers determine availability, prices, condition, and library eligibility. No PointCast stock, checkout, payment, or fulfilment.",
  "reproducedBookText": false,
  "quotationsUsed": 0,
  "artworkIsOfficialCover": false
}