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Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Chapter IX
I cruised off the coast of Florida. The fishing was good. I was out of stocks. My mind
was easy. I was having a fine time. One day off Palm Beach some friends came
alongside in a motor boat. One of them brought a newspaper with him. I hadn't looked at
one in some days and had not felt any desire to see one. I was not interested in any news
it might print. But I glanced over the one my friend brought to the yacht, and I saw that
the market had had a big rally; ten points and more.
I told my friends that I would go ashore with them. Moderate rallies from time to time
were reasonable. But the bear market was not over; and here was Wall Street or the fool
public or desperate bull interests disregarding monetary conditions and marking up
prices beyond reason or letting somebody else do it. It was too much for me. I simply
had to take a look at the market. I didn't know what I might or might not do. But I knew
that my pressing need was the sight of the quotation board.
My brokers, Harding Brothers, had a branch office in Palm Beach. When I walked in I
found there a lot of chaps I knew. Most of them were talking bullish. They were of the
type that trade on the tape and want quick action. Such traders don't care to look ahead
very far because they don't need to with their style of play. I told you how I'd got to be
known in the New York office as the Boy Plunger. Of course people always magnify a
fellow's winnings and the size of the line he swings. The fellows in the office had heard
that I had made a killing in New York on the bear side and they now expected that I
again would plunge on the short side. They themselves thought the rally would go to a
good deal further, but they rather considered it my duty to fight it.
I had come down to Florida on a fishing trip. I had been under a pretty severe strain and
I needed my holiday. But the moment I saw how far the recovery in prices had gone I no
longer felt the need of a vacation. I had not thought of just what I was going to do when
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