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Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
attractions. In fact, an overwhelming majority were stocks in which there had not been a
sale in years. Today there are about 900 stocks on the regular list and in our recent active
markets about 600 separate issues were traded in. Moreover, the old groups or classes of
stocks were easier to keep track of. They not only were fewer but the capitalization was
smaller and the news a trader had to be on the lookout for did not cover so wide a field.
But today, a man is trading in everything; almost every industry in the world is
represented. It requires more time and more work to keep posted and to that extent stock
speculation has become much more difficult for those who operate intelligently.
There are many thousands of people who buy and sell stocks speculatively but the
number of those who speculate profitably is small. As the public always is "in" the
market to some extent, it follows that there are losses by the public all the time. The
speculator's deadly enemies are: Ignorance, greed, fear and hope. All the statute books in
the world and all the rules of all the Exchanges on earth cannot eliminate these from the
human animal. Accidents which knock carefully conceived plans skyhigh also are
beyond regulation by bodies of coldblooded economists or warm-hearted
philanthropists. There remains another source of loss and that is, deliberate
misinformation as distinguished from straight tips. And because it is apt to come to a
stock trader variously disguised and camouflaged, it is the more insidious and
dangerous.
The average outsider, of course, trades either on tips or on rumours, spoken or printed,
direct or implied. Against ordinary tips you cannot guard. For instance, a lifelong friend
sincerely desires to make you rich by telling you what he has done, that is, to buy or sell
some stock. His intent is good. If the tip goes wrong what can you do? Also against the
professional or crooked tipster the public is protected to about the same extent that he is
against gold-bricks or wood-alcohol.
But against the typical Wall Street rumours, the speculating public has neither protection
nor redress. Wholesale dealers in securities, manipulators, pools and individuals resort to
various devices to aid them in disposing of their surplus holdings at the best possible
prices. The circulation of bullish items by the newspapers and the tickers is the most
pernicious of all.
Get the slips of the financial news-agencies any day and it will surprise you to see how
many statements of an implied semi-official nature they print. The authority is some
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