VOObyM

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
"Why, it's all about you. It says you've got July cotton cornered."
"I haven't seen it," I told him and left him. I don't know whether he believed me or not.
He probably thought it was highly inconsiderate of me not to tell him whether it was true
or not.
When I got to the office I sent out for a copy of the paper. Sure enough, there it was, on
the front page, in big headlines:
JULY COTTON CORNERED BY LARRY LIVINGSTON
Of course I knew at once that the article would play the dickens with the market. If I had
deliberately studied ways and means of disposing of my one hundred and forty thousand
bales to the best advantage I couldn't have hit upon a better plan. It would not have been
possible to find one. That article at that very moment was being read all over the country
either in the World or in other papers quoting it. It had been cabled to Europe. That was
plain from the Liverpool prices. That market was simply wild. No wonder, with such
news.
Of course I knew what New York would do, and what I ought to do. The market here
opened at ten o'clock. At ten minutes after ten I did not own any cotton. I let them have
every one of my one hundred and forty thousand bales. For most of my line I received
what proved to be the top prices of the day. The traders made the market for me. All I
really did was to see a heaven-sent opportunity to get rid of my cotton. I grasped it
because I couldn't help it. What else could I do?
The problem that I knew would take a great deal of hard thinking to solve was thus
solved for me by an accident. If the World had not published that article I never would
have been able to dispose of my line without sacrificing the greater portion of my paper
profits. Selling one hundred and forty thousand bales of July cotton without sending the
price down was a trick beyond my powers. But the World story turned it for me very
nicely.
Why the World published it I cannot tell you. I never knew. I suppose the writer was
tipped off by some friend in the cotton market and he thought he was printing a scoop. I
didn't see him or anybody from the World. I didn't know it was printed that morning
until after nine o'clock; and if it had not been for my friend calling my attention to it I
- 117 -