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Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
But on the next day the buying was not only greater in volume but more aggressive in
character. The selling orders that had been on the specialists' books for months at above
the pegged price of 37 were absorbed without any trouble, and not enough new selling
orders came in to check the rise. Naturally, up went the price. It crossed 40. Presently it
touched 42.
The moment it touched that figure I felt that I was justified in starting to sell the stock
the bank held as collateral. Of course I figured that the price would go down on my
selling, but if my average on the entire line was 37 I'd have no fault to find. I knew what
the stock was worth and I had gathered some idea of the vendibility from the months of
inactivity. Well, sir, I let them have stock carefully until I had got rid of thirty thousand
shares. And the advance was not checked!
That afternoon I was told the reason for that opportune but mystifying rise. It seems that
the floor traders had been tipped off after the close the night before and also the next
morning before the opening, that I was bullish as blazes on Consolidated Stove and was
going to rush the price right up fifteen or twenty points without a reaction, as was my
custom that is, my custom according to people who never kept my books. The tipster in
chief was no less a personage than Joshua Wolff. It was his own inside buying that
started the rise of the day before. His cronies among the floor traders were only too
willing to follow his tip, for he knew too much to give wrong steers to his fellows.
As a matter of fact, there was not so much stock pressing on the market as had been
feared. Consider that I had tied up three hundred thousand shares and you will realise
that the old fears had been well founded. It now proved less of a job than I had
anticipated to put up the stock. After all, Governor Flower was right. Whenever he was
accused of manipulating his firm's specialties, like Chicago Gas, Federal Steel or
B. R. T., he used to say: "The only way I know of making a stock go up is to buy it."
That also was the floor traders' only way, and the price responded.
On the next day, before breakfast, I read in the morning papers what was read by
thousands and what undoubtedly was sent over the wires to hundreds of branches and
out-of-town offices, and that was that Larry Livingston was about to begin active bull
operations in Consolidated Stove. The additional details differed. One version had it that
I had formed an insiders' pool and was going to punish the overextended short interest.
Another hinted at dividend announcements in the near future. Another reminded the
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