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Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
business to know.
That is how I make my living. My visitor tells me what he and his associates wish to do,
and asks me to undertake the deal.
It is then my turn to talk. I ask for whatever information I deem necessary to give me a
clear understanding of what I am asked to undertake. I determine the value and estimate
the market possibilities of that stock. That and my reading of current conditions in turn
help me to gauge the likelihood of success for the proposed operation.
If my information inclines me to a favourable view I accept the proposition and tell him
then and there what my terms will be for my services. If he in turn accepts my terms the
honorarium and the conditions I begin my work at once.
I generally ask and receive calls on a block of stock. I insist upon graduated calls as the
fairest to all concerned. The price of the call begins at a little below the prevailing
market price and goes up; say, for example, that I get calls on one hundred thousand
shares and the stock is quoted at 40. I begin with a call for some thousands of shares at
35, another at 37, another at 40, and at 45 and 50, and so on up to 75 or 80.
If as the result of my professional work my manipulation the price goes up, and if at the
highest level there is a good demand for the stock so that I can sell fair-sized blocks of it
I of course call the stock. I am making money; but so are my clients making money.
This is as it should be. If my skill is what they are paying for they ought to get value. Of
course, there are times when a pool may be wound up at a woss, but that is seldom, for I
do not undertake the work unless * see my way clear to a profit. This year I was not so
fortunate in one or two deals, and I did not make a profit. There are reasons, but that is
another story, to be told later perhaps.
The first step in a bull movement in a stock is to advertise the fact that there is a bull
movement on. Sounds silly, doesn't it? Well, think a moment. It isn't as silly as it
sounded, is it? The most effective way to advertise what, in effect, are your honourable
intentions is to make the stock active and strong. After all is said and done, the greatest
publicity agent in the wide world is the ticker, and by far the best advertising medium is
the tape. I do not need to put out any literature for my clients. I do not have to inform the
daily press as to the value of the stock or to work the financial reviews for notices about
the company's prospects. Neither do I have to get a following. I accomplish all these
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