VOObyM

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
figure that at some stage of the rise there is going to be a reaction. I want to see how the
market takes care of itself after that reaction. It will probably react to where I got my
third lot. Say that after going higher it falls back to H2J4, and then rallies. Well, just as it
goes back to 113% I shoot an order to buy four thousand at the market of course. Well,
if I get that fouf thousand at 113% I know something is wrong and I'll give a testing
order that is, I'll sell one thousand shares to see how the market takes it. But suppose that
of the order to buy the four thousand shares that I put in when the price was 113^4 I get
two thousand at 114 and five hundred at 114^ and the rest on the way up so that for the
last five hundred I pay 115^. Then I know I am right. It is the way I get the four
thousand shares that tells me whether I am right in buying that particular stock at that
particular time for of course I am working on the assumption that I have checked up
general conditions pretty well and they are bullish. I never want to buy stocks too cheap
or too easily.
I remember a story I heard about Deacon S. V. White when he was one of the big
operators of the Street. He was a very fine old man, clever as they make them, and
brave. He did some wonderful things in his day, from all I've heard.
It was in the old days when Sugar was one of the most continuous purveyors of
fireworks in the market.
H. O. Havemeyer, president of the company, was in the heyday of his power. I gather
from talks with the old-timers that H. O. and his following had all the resources of cash
and cleverness necessary to put through successfully any deal in their- own stock. They
tell me that Havemeyer trimmed more small professional traders in that stock than any
other insider in. any other stock. As a rule, the floor traders are more likely to thwart the
insiders' game than help it.
One day a man who knew Deacon White rushed into the office all excited and said,
"Deacon, you told me if I ever got any good information to come to you at once with it
and if you used it you'd carry me for a few hundred shares." He paused for breath and
for confirmation.
The deacon looked at him in that meditative way he had and said, "I don't know whether
I ever told you exactly that or not, but I am willing to pay for information that I can use."
"Well, I've got it for you."
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