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Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
indicated that the line of least resistance was upward and it had cost me a million to shut
my eyes to it.
Now, however, the reason that had made me cover at a big loss was no longer a good
reason since there had not been the usual prompt and vigorous rally. So I sold 10,000
bales and waited. Pretty soon the market went off 50 points. I waited a little while
longer. There was no rally. I had got pretty hungry by now, so I went into the diningroom
and ordered my luncheon. Before the waiter could serve it, I jumped up, went to
the broker's office, I saw that there had been no rally and so I sold 10,000 bales more. I
waited a little and had the pleasure of seeing the price decline 40 points more. That
showed me I was trading correctly so I returned to the dining-room, ate my luncheon
and went back to the broker's. There was no rally in cotton that day. That very night I
left Hot Springs.
It was all very well to play golf but I had been wrong in cotton in selling when I did and
in covering when I did. So I simply had to get back on the job and be where I could
trade in comfort. The way the market took my first ten thousand bales made me sell the
second ten thousand, and the way the market took the second made me certain the turn
had come. It was the difference in behaviour.
Well, I reached Washington and went to my brokers' office there, which was in charge
of my old friend Tucker. While I was there the market went down some more. I was
more confident of being right now than I had been of being wrong before. So I sold
40,000 bales and the market went off 75 points. It showed that there was no support
there. That night the market closed still lower. The old buying power was plainly gone.
There was no telling at what level that power would again develop, but I felt confident
of the wisdom of my position. The next morning I left Washington for New York by
motor. There was no need to hurry.
When we got to Philadelphia I drove to a broker's office. I saw that there was the very
dickens to pay in the cotton market. Prices had broken badly and there was a small-sized
panic on. I didn't wait to get to New York. I called up my brokers on the long distance
and I covered my shorts. As soon as I got my reports and found that I had practically
made up my previous loss, I motored on to New York without having to stop en route to
see any more quotations.
Some friends who were with me in Hot Springs talk to this day of the way I jumped up
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