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Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
beginning at the right time; so was sticking to your position. But my greatest discovery
was that a man must study general conditions, to size them so as to be able to anticipate
probabilities. In short, I had learned that I had to work for my money. I was no longer
betting blindly or concerned with mastering the techniques of the game, but with earning
my successes by hard study and clear thinking. I also had found out that nobody was
immune from the danger of making sucker plays. And for a sucker play a man gets
sucker pay; for the paymaster is on the job and never loses the pay envelope that is
coming to you.
Our office made a great deal of money. My own operations were so successful that they
began to be talked about and, of course, were greatly exaggerated. I was credited with
starting the breaks in various stocks. People I didn't know by name used to come and
congratulate me. They all thought the most wonderful thing was the money I had made.
They did not say a word about the time when I first talked bearish to them and they
thought I was a crazy bear with a stock-market loser's vindictive grouch. That I had
foreseen the money troubles was nothing. That my brokers' bookkeeper had used a third
of a drop of ink on the credit side of the ledger under my name was a marvelous
achievement to them.
Friends used to tell me that in various offices the Boy Plunger in Harding Brothers'
office was quoted as making all sorts of threats against the bull cliques that had tried to
mark up prices of various stocks long after it was plain that the market was bound to
seek a much lower level. To this day they talk of my raids.
From the latter part of September on, the money market was megaphoning warnings to
the entire world. But a belief in miracles kept people from selling what remained of their
speculative holdings. Why, a broker told me a story the first week of October that made
me feel almost ashamed of my moderation.
You remember that money loans used to be made on the floor of the Exchange around
the Money Post. Those brokers who had received notice from their banks to pay call
loans knew in a general way how much money they would have to borrow afresh. And
of course the banks knew their position so far as loanable funds were concerned, and
those which had money to loan would send it to the Exchange. This bank money was
handled by a few brokers whose principal business was time loans. At about noon the
renewal rate for the day was posted. Usually this represented a fair average of the loans
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