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Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
I have no explanation to give you, either scientific or childish. I am telling you what I
did, and why, and what came of it. I was much less concerned with the mystery of the
hunch than with the fact that I got a quarter of a million out of it. It meant that I could
now swing a much bigger line than ever, if or when the time came for it.
That summer I went to Saratoga Springs. It was supposed to be a vacation for me, but I
kept an eye on the market. To begin with, I wasn't so tired that it bothered me to think
about it. And then, everybody I knew up there had or had had an active interest in it. We
naturally talked about it. I have noticed that there is quite a difference between talking
and trading. Some of these chaps remind you of the bold clerk who talks to his
cantankerous employer as to a yellow dog when he tells you about it.
Harding Brothers had a branch office in Saratoga. Many of their customers were there.
But the real reason, I suppose, was the advertising value. Having a branch office in a
resort is simply high-class billboard advertising. I used to drop in and sit around with the
rest of the crowd. The manager was a very nice chap from the New York office who was
there to give the glad hand to friends and strangers and, if possible, to get business. It
was a wonderful place for tips all kinds of tips, horse-race, stock-market, and waiters'.
The office knew I didn't take any, so the manager didn't come and whisper confidentially
in my ear what he'd just got on the q. t. from the New York office. He simply passed
over the telegrams, saying, "This is what they're sending out," or something of the kind.
Of course I watched the market. With me, to look at the quotation board and to read the
signs is one process. My good friend Union Pacific, I noticed, looked like going up. The
price was high, but the stock acted as if it were being accumulated. I watched it a couple
of days without trading in it, and the more I watched it the more convinced I became that
it was being bought on balance by somebody who was no piker, somebody who not only
had a big bank roll but knew what was what. Very clever accumulation, I thought.
As soon as I was sure of this I naturally began to buy it, at about 160. It kept on acting
all hunky, and so I kept on buying it, five hundred shares at a clip. The more I bought
the stronger it got, without any spurt, and I was feeling very comfortable. I couldn't see
any reason why that stock shouldn't go up a great deal more; not with what I read on the
tape.
All of a sudden the manager came to me and said they'd got a message from New York
they had a direct wire of course asking if I was in the office, and when they answered
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