VOObyM

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
I came ashore. But now I knew I must sell stocks. I was right, and I must prove it in my
old and only way by saying it with money. To sell the general list would be a proper,
prudent, profitable and even patriotic action.
The first thing I saw on the quotation board was that Anaconda was on the point of
crossing 300. It had been going up by leaps and bounds and there was apparently an
aggressive bull party in it. It was an old trading theory of mine that when a stock crosses
100 or 200 or 300 for the first time the price does not stop at the even figure but goes a
good deal higher, so that if you buy it as soon as it crosses the line it is almost certain to
show you a profit. Timid people don't like to buy a stock at a new high record. But I had
the history of such movements to guide me.
Anaconda was only quarter stock that is, the par of the shares was only twenty-five
dollars. It took four hundred shares of it to equal the usual one hundred shares of other
stocks, the par value of which was one hundred dollars. I figured that when it crossed
300 it ought to keep on going and probably touch 340 in a jiffy.
I was bearish, remember, but I was also a tape-reading trader. I knew Anaconda, if it
went the way I figured, would move very quickly. Whatever moves fast always appeals
to me. I have learned patience and how to sit tight, but my personal preference is for
fleet movements, and Anaconda certainly was no sluggard. My buying it because it
crossed 300 was prompted by the desire, always strong in me, of confirming my
observations.
Just then the tape was saying that the buying was stronger than the selling, and therefore
the general rally might easily go a bit further. It would be prudent to wait before going
short. Still I might as well pay myself wages for waiting. This would be accomplished
by taking a quick thirty points out of Anaconda. Bearish on the entire market and bullish
on that one stock! So I bought thirty-two thousand shares of Anaconda that is, eight
thousand full shares. It was a nice little flyer but I was sure of my premises and I figured
that the profit would help to swell the margin available for bear operations later on.
On the next day the telegraph wires were down on account of a storm up North or
something of the sort. I was in Harding's office waiting for news. The crowd was
chewing the rag and wondering all sorts of things, as stock traders will when they can't
trade. Then we got a quotation the only one that day: Anaconda, 292.
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