The loss. The belief. The revision.
What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars
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.
Begin reading
01 / A place to begin
A spoiler-light introduction.
A remembered decision deserves a second look.
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.
Sources: WorldCat — original Infrared edition · Columbia University Press — hardcover edition · Columbia Scholarship Online — digital title record
Reader note
Read this as a historical account and argument about loss, not a trading method or promise of returns.
- First publication
- 1994
- Form
- Autobiographical trading account and argument about decision-making under loss
- Original language
- English
- Publication note
- WorldCat's original print record identifies Infrared Press, Nashville, ©1994. The current Columbia edition is a 2013 reissue, not the original publication.
02 / Ways of looking
Choose a reading lens.
Three original prompts. Pick the question you want to carry into the book.
Your reading prompt
Experience
Separate the event from the explanation.
Keep two columns: what happened in the account, and what the authors infer from it. Notice when the distinction becomes difficult.
Confidence
Watch a belief become attached.
Follow one moment when earlier success affects a later judgment. What new information becomes harder to hear?
Evidence
Ask what a case can establish.
Choose a general claim and ask what evidence beyond this remembered experience could support or challenge it.
03 / The copy desk
Find the edition for you.
Outside sellers and libraries handle purchases and loans. They determine stock, prices, condition, eligibility, and waits. Routes and bibliographic details checked .
All 2 reading routes shown.
Columbia hardcover
Hardcover
A physical copy of the Columbia reissue, with the new edition preface and foreword.
- Publisher
- Columbia University Press / Columbia Business School Publishing
- ISBN
- 9780231164689
- Edition date
- 2013-04
- Pages
- 192
- Extra material
- 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.
External discovery route. Check ISBN, format, seller, condition, delivery and current terms. No price, stock, fulfillment or affiliation is asserted.
External discovery route. Check ISBN, format, seller, condition, delivery and current terms. No price, stock, fulfillment or affiliation is asserted.
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.
Columbia ebook
Licensed ebook; EPUB and OverDrive Read verified in library record
A digital alternative through a participating library or institution, useful for reading alongside notes.
- Publisher
- Columbia University Press
- ISBN
- 9780231535236
- Edition date
- 2013-04
- Pages
- 192
- Extra material
- 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.
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.
Requires an institution or other licensed entitlement with access to this title; this is not an open full-text or public-domain route.
This modern book remains copyrighted. Read a purchased or lawfully borrowed copy. Licensed institutional access has separate eligibility conditions.
04 / Alongside the book
Keep a thread.
01 / First encounter
First encounter.
Read the personal account before judging the proposed explanation. Keep two columns: what happened and what the authors infer from it.
02 / Read critically
Read critically.
Choose one general claim. Ask what evidence beyond the remembered experience would support or challenge it.
03 / Across the shelf
Across the shelf.
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.
05 / After reading
Let the questions stay.
Optional deeper reading. The panels below may discuss later events or the ending. They begin closed so you can choose when to continue.
Deeper themes · possible spoilersLook beneath the surface.
Original PointCast interpretations and prompts, rather than the author’s stated meaning. Open after reading if you want to preserve the discovery.
Experience and inference
Which remembered success changes the meaning of a later decision?
Confidence under pressure
Where do the authors move from one person's experience to a general claim?
The view from afterward
What evidence would distinguish an error in analysis from a refusal to revise a belief?
Reading group · discussion spoilersBring it into conversation.
These questions concern the whole work. Return to the edition you are reading for examples and compare passages rather than page numbers.
- 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?
06 / The next door
Nearby readings.
Sources / Follow the evidence
The reading is personal.
The references are inspectable.
A companion with its sources.
Primary library catalog
WorldCat — original Infrared edition
Both authors, print book, English, Infrared Press Nashville ©1994. Local holdings vary.
Primary publisher record
Columbia University Press — hardcover edition
ISBN 9780231164689, April 2013, hardcover, 192 pages, both authors and foreword contributor. Contents support the Columbia preface, notes and bibliography.
Primary licensed publisher platform
Columbia Scholarship Online — digital title record
Print ISBN 9780231164689, online ISBN 9780231535236, both authors, publisher and April 30, 2013 platform publication.
Primary licensed publisher platform
JSTOR — Columbia ebook record
192 pages, 2013 copyright, EISBN 9780231535236, both authors. Access is subject to a licensed entitlement; not public-domain text.
Library discovery service
OverDrive — library discovery
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.
Primary public-library catalog
Ferguson Library — ebook format metadata
Both authors; Columbia University Press; April 2, 2013 release; EPUB/OverDrive Read ISBN 9780231535236.
Verified retailer access route
AbeBooks — matching Columbia hardcover ISBN
Matching ISBN and hardcover metadata; used listings identified. No prices, stock, condition or fulfillment claims saved.
Introductions, reading lenses, pathways, and discussion prompts are original editorial copy. No book text is reproduced on this page.
The artwork was generated as an original editorial atmosphere. It is not an official cover, archival evidence, an author’s artwork, or a publisher endorsement.