VOObyM

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Everything! It was a bear market. They were all going down. The next day was Friday,
Washington's Birthday. I couldn't stay in Florida and fish because I had put out a very
fair short line, for me. I was needed in New York. Who needed me? I did! Palm Beach
was too far, too remote. Too much valuable time was lost telegraphing back and forth.
I left Palm Beach for New York. On Monday I had to lie in St. Augustine three hours,
waiting for a train. There was a broker's office there, and naturally I had to see how the
market was acting while I was waiting. Anaconda had broken several points since the
last trading day. As a matter of fact, it didn't stop going down until the big break that
fall.
I got to New York and traded on the bear side for about four months. The market had
frequent rallies as before, and I kept covering and putting them out again. I didn't,
strictly speaking, sit tight. Remember, I had lost every cent of the three hundred
thousand dollars I made out of the San Francisco earthquake break. I had been right, and
nevertheless had gone broke. I was now playing safe because after being down a man
enjoys being up, even if he doesn't quite make the top. The way to make money is to
make it. The way to make big money is to be right at exactly the right time. In this
business a man has to think of both theory and practice. A speculator must not be merely
a student, he must be both a student and a speculator.
I did pretty well, even if I can now see where my campaign was tactically inadequate.
When summer came the market got dull. It was a cinch that there would be nothing
doing in a big way until well along in the fall. Everybody I knew had gone or was going
to Europe. I though that would be a good move for me. So I cleaned up. When I sailed
for Europe I was a trifle more than three-quarters of a million to the good. To me that
looked like some balance.
I was in Aix-les-Bains enjoying myself. I had earned my vacation. It was good to be in a
place like that with plenty of money and friends and acquaintances and everybody intent
upon having a good time. Not much trouble about having that, in Aix. Wall Street was
so far away that I never thought about it, and that is more than I could say of any resort
in the United States. I didn't have to listen to talk about the stock market. I didn't need to
trade. I had enough to last me quite a long time, and besides, when I got back I knew
what to do to make much more than I could spend in Europe that summer.
One day I saw in the Paris Herald a dispatch from New York that Smelters had declared
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