VOObyM

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
yes, another came saying: "Keep him there. Tell him Mr. Harding wants to speak to
him."
I said I'd wait, and bought five hundred shares more of UP. I couldn't imagine what
Harding could have to say to me. I didn't think it was anything about business. My
margin was more than ample for what I was buying. Pretty soon the manager came and
told me that Mr. Ed Harding wanted me on the long-distance telephone.
"Hello, Ed," I said.
But he said, "What the devil's the matter with you? Are you crazy?"
"Are you?" I said.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Buying all that stock."
"Why, isn't my margin all right?"
"It isn't a case of margin, but of being a plain sucker."
"I don't get you."
"Why are you buying all that Union Pacific?"
"It's going up," I said.
"Going up, hell! Don't you know that the insiders are feeding it out to you? You're just
about the easiest mark up there. You'd have more fun losing it on the ponies. Don't let
them kid you."
"Nobody is kidding me," I told him. "I haven't talked to a soul about it."
But he came back at me: "You can't expect a miracle to save you every time you plunge
in that stock. Get out while you've still got a chance," he said. "It's a crime to be long of
that stock at this level when these highbinders are shoveling it out by the ton."
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