How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market | Nicolas Darvas

How can a professional dancer master the stock market using a unique box system? Nicolas Darvas shares his legendary trading method in this classic book.

About the Book:

Hungarian by birth, Nicolas Darvas trained as an economist at the University of Budapest.

Reluctant to remain in Hungary until either the Nazis or Soviets took over, he fled at the age of 23 with a forged exit visa and fifty pounds sterling to stave off hunger in Istanbul, Turkey. During his off hours as a dancer, he read some 200 books on the market and the great speculators, spending as much as eight hours a day studying.

Darvas invested his money into a couple of stocks that had been hitting their 52-week high.

He was utterly surprised that the stocks continued to rise and subsequently sold them to make a large profit. His main source of stock selection was Barron's Magazine. At the age of 39, after accumulating his fortune, Darvas documented his techniques in the book, How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market.

The book describes his unique Box System, which he used to buy and sell stocks. Darvas' book remains a classic stock market text to this day.

How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market | Nicolas Darvas

Frequently Asked Questions About How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market

• Q: Is this book written by a professional Wall Street broker or insider?
• A: No. Nicolas Darvas was actually a world-famous professional ballroom dancer who had absolutely no formal training or background in finance. He completely taught himself how to trade while traveling the world for his dance tours, proving that an everyday retail investor can find immense success using a strict rules-based approach.
• Q: What is the core trading methodology taught inside this book?
• A: The book outlines Darvas’s famous "Box Theory". This is an early technical, momentum-breakout system where a trader identifies a stock consolidating within a strict upper and lower price frame (the box). A buy order is triggered only when the price breaks out cleanly above the top ceiling of the box on heavy trading volume.
• Q: Does this book recommend buying penny stocks or following hot market tips?
• A: Quite the opposite. Early chapters chronicle Darvas’s catastrophic losses from chasing barroom tips, broker recommendations, and penny mining shares. The book is a warning against speculative hype, detailing how he abandoned public gossip entirely to build an independent system focused strictly on objective price action and company earnings.
• Q: How does Darvas recommend managing investment risk and preventing huge drawdowns?
• A: The cornerstone of Darvas's method is the fanatical use of automatic stop-loss orders. The moment he entered a breakout trade, he simultaneously placed an order slightly below his entry point. This mechanism completely removed human emotion from the equation, automatically cutting small losses quickly before they could grow into account-crippling drawdowns.
• Q: Is a 1960s strategy book still relevant to modern e-commerce and retail investors?
• A: Yes. Instead of relying on passing market configurations or specific economic environments, Darvas focuses on the timeless psychology of human crowds and supply-and-demand charts. The structural rules of momentum breakouts, trailing stop-losses, and strict risk control are highly transferable and actively utilized by modern stock, options, and cryptocurrency traders.

About the Author:

Nicolas Darvas: Hungarian Dancer

Nicolas Darvas was a Hungarian dancer, self-taught investor, and author, best known for his book, How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market.

Book Data:

• Full Title: How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market
• Author(s): Nicolas Darvas
• Condition: Pre-Owned / Very Good
• Publisher & Imprint: General Press
• Alternate Publishers: Lyle Stuart (Original Publisher; widely reprinted by Sanage Publishing House and Citadel)
• Publication Date: September 1, 2020
• Original Publication Date: June 1960 (Original Edition)
• Book Binding: Paperback / Softcover
• Edition: Trade Paperback
• Option Binding Formats: Trade Paperback / Hardcover / Softcover / Library Binding
• Print Length: 170 Pages (Other copies vary by reprint edition; up to 197-210 pages)
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 9789389716283
• ISBN-10: 9389716284
• Library of Congress (LCCN): 60-10204
• Primary Genre (BISAC): BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Investments & Securities / Stocks
• Sub-Genres (BISAC): BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Finance / Wealth Management; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs
• Book Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.0 inches
• Weight: 8.8 oz (approx. 0.55 lbs)

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