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Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Anyhow, I made up my mind that I would see what trading advantages of this firm
offered over what you might call the legitimate brokers. I didn't have much money to put
up as margin, and firms that bucketed orders were naturally much more liberal in that
respect, so that a few hundred dollars went much further in their offices.
I went down to their place and had a talk with the manager himself. When he found out
that I was an old trader and had formerly had accounts in New York with Stock
Exchange houses and that I had lost all I took with me he stopped promising to make a
million a minute for me if I let them invest my savings. He figured that I was a
permanent sucker, the ticker-hound kind that always plays and always loses; a steadyincome
provider for brokers, whether they were the kind that bucket your orders or
modestly content themselves with the commissions.
I just told the manager that what I was looking for was decent execution, because I
always traded at the market and I didn't want to get reports that showed a difference of a
half or a whole point from the ticker price.
He assured me on his word of honor that they would do whatever I thought was right.
They wanted my business because they wanted to show me what high-class brokering
was. They had in their employ the best talent in the business. In fact, they were famous
for their execution. If there was any difference between the ticker price and the report it
was always in favor of the customer, though of course they didn't guarantee that. If I
opened an account with them I could buy and sell at the price which came over the wire,
they were so confident of their brokers.
Naturally that meant that I could trade there to all intents and purposes as though I were
in a bucket shop that is, they'd let me trade at the next quotation. I didn't want to appear
too anxious, so I shook my head and told him I guessed I wouldn't open an account that
day, but I'd let him know. He urged me strongly to begin right away as it was a good
market to make money in. It was for them; a dull market with prices seesawing slightly,
just the kind to get customers in and then wipe them out with a sharp drive in the tipped
stock. I had some trouble in getting away.
I had given him my name and address, and that very same day I began to get prepaid
telegrams and letters urging me to get aboard of some stock or other in which they said
they knew an inside pool was operating for a fifty-point rise.
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