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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 1910)
i J ins' MATTA SUNDAY HEE: FEBIfUAItr R. 1910. 10 HARDEST GAME IN STOCKS Floor Trader in Wall Street and His Ways. QUICK TURNS COUNTED ON Form ml speculation Wearing; on err, Kihimtliig Physically, Trln Mentally -Fcate Told of the Ksprrts. XKW YORK, Feb. B. When after the col lap of the pool In Columbus and IlcM'klnR Coal and Iron stock reienlly It became known that floor traders had lost upward of W),000, Joy was unconflned nmon the traders and speculators In clocks who have not the privilege of the floor. When on the following day It came out that a specialist had (rone down In the crash the feelings of outside trader grew exuberant and enthusiastic. There tvss even talk of fireworks and martial music to celebrate the occasion. The Joyful feeling was not characteristic N of Wall street sentiment whenever men lone large sums of money. Even In the hard gained financial district there la sympathy, albeit seldom help, for men who suffer coetly reverses. This was a special occasion. It was unique In Wall street history In that the big losses were of the classes Uiat go to make up the so-called professional e)3mcnt on the Stock ex change. Undoubtedly every one of the Jubilant outside traders had at one time or another suffered losses which he at tributed to the operations of the profes sionals. The professional Is a manipulator, a floor trader or a specialist, or all three In one. As a manipulator he may conduct his operations outside the exchange and may or may not have exchange membership. But the floor traders and specialists are distinctly Stock exchange creations. They must be members of the exchange and their business Is done within those doors of the exchange which are closed to the public. Members of the Exchange. The Stock exchange has 1,100 members of whom about TOO are actively engaged In the brokerage business. Of the 700 active members, lii are listed In tho Stock ex change directory as men having; no office of their own. They are put down as brok ers "at" the office of one firm or another and at the address given they have simply desk room where they may make up their sheets and where others may find them for the settlement of their accounts. These 138 and some fifty more, who have small offices for clearance purposes only, comprise the unattached contingent to which the floor traders belong. Many of them do business simply as $2 brokers; that Is, as brokers who execute orders for other brokers for a small portion of the commission which the others charge and take few or no chances on the market. Others do a 2 business and trade on their own account as well. Still others refuse all commission business, whether from members of the exchange or others, and take chances on every trade they make. These last are the real gamblers of the Stock exchange. If not of the world. The number of the big floor traders Is not large, for the reason that their game Is the hardest game that Is known, the most wearing on the nervous system, the most exhausting physically, the most try ing mentally. Most of the active brokers have tried the game and have been will ing to leave it to others. In most cases -losses have disconcerted them and. they have thought it more prudent to pursue the safe and sure commission. Only In an exceptional case, like that of tho late K. H. Harrlman, has a successful floor trader of the first order left the floor to engage In other business. Over other traders the floor trader has the advuntage that he pays no commis sions, being a member of the exchange; that his position on the floor enables him to keep the closest track of the market and that he has had long experience In the execution of orders. Ills disadvan tages are that the operator outside se cures first news of market developments of Importance and that many market movements planned from the outside leave him out of consideration. Deal la Fluctuations. "The floor traders, or professionals," aid the report of the Hughes commission on Stock exchange practices, "keenly study tho markets and the general conditions of business and acquire early information which affects the value of securities. From thir familiarity with the technique of dealings on tho exchange and ability to act In concert with others and thus ma nipulate values, they are supposed to have special advantages over other traders." In the opinion of about every one with Wall street experience that the Hughes oorr.mlsalon erred In this analysis. The floor trader doesn't "study the general cot'oitlon of business." He studies quota tions for stocks and bonds. He does not know or does not care about the intrinsic value of a security; Its market value Is his co crn. f. It is of no Interest to him that a railroad president Is building up his company, but if a railroad president Is buying the stock of his company, the floor trader will pay high for the Information. A company may he amassing a big surplus; what of It, the tr.slders are not buying the stockT A com pany may be pointed straight toward the hards of receivers; It makes no difference if the Insiders are not selling the stock. "Equtttes in stocks," one of them said scornfully. "What do I care about them? My business is to deal In fluctuations." But In regard to the ebb and flow of market prices no one compares with tho 1 experienced floor trader In Judgment of the market's swings. He studies what Wall street calls the technical position of the market; strives to learn, for Instance, when a bull pool Is becoming weak, when wealthy men have distributed their holdings among outside speculators, when the customers of brokerage offices are pyramiding profits or trading on thin margins, or when pow erful banking Interests have withdrawn supporting orders. Great Alertaess Keaalred. If conditions like these exist the floor trader sells the market aggressively In the hope of dislodging weakly held stocks. If opposite conditions prevail he buys them Just as oggresslvely and confidently. There Is no sentiment In his trade. He Is a bull or a bear according to the occasion, except that he Is more often heaj-tuh . the reason that It Is cheaper to aell stocks short than to buy and carry them. The trader short of the market escapes the compound Interest charges which must be i borne by him who Is long. 4 In the execution of buying and selling riders no broker on all the exchanges In the world Is a proficient as the ten or doaon most experienced and aggressive floor traders on the New York board. In very one of the men the sens of sound is abnormally and most keenly developed. Their business almost invariably Is In the crowds around the posts where business Is most active, where. It may be. scores of voices are raised slmultanenosly In loud and clamorous bidding. To distinguish voices Is almost as neces sary to the experienced floor trader as to distinguish fact. It Is said of the best floor traders that in keenness and alert of hearing they excell those expert telegraph operators who distinguish the man at the other end of the wire by the sou nd of the key. I In mental arithmetic these expert brokers also remarkable. If storks are to be are bought and sold with the utmost rapidity no time can be spared In making notes of ex- ery f purchase and sale. The trader must on his memory tn rsrrv the amount rely and the price of the stock sold to one broker, amount and price of that bought from ,nother, and so on through several trades. Moreover, and more difficult still, he must cal uiate instantaneously the standing ot ar.crmntjl h d 'a mtrr frnm one his trade le to another and the complexity of these accounts may be such as would bother an experienced clerk. He may have. for Instance, begun with 1,000 shares bought 90 and heard instantly and taken a bid BOO shares at 90'. Following sales and at for purchases may have been at fractional ad vances and fractional losses until a lull In the trading gave time to Jot down the transactions In the notebook. All this time trader must be certain of the amounts names of his contracts and carry In and head his gains of losses. It is related of Joseph J. Manning, by general consent the most proficient and venturesome of all the dosen exDcrts. that he can go Into a crowd, execute as many as twenty trades as rapidly as the voice Utter thorn and lot them rtnwn mh. can seqj uently In the same order In which y were made and as aecuratelv if they stenographer had taken notes of them. Jacob Field, I. N. Snlerberg. Harry Con. tent pert and half a dozen others are also cx in this line. Very likely men who have mastered any memory system could do as well in parlor practice, but It is to be remembered that the mental arithmetic of the floor trailer only needed and is only brought into play in times of intense excitement when the mind Is naturally occupied with many other things. That a mistake may mean the loss of thousands Is also to be consid ered. In no known Instance has anv .nt.at of an expert floor trader been repudiated on account oi an error by one of them. Their sheets no tliromrh th rUirinr, hn.... as cleanly as the sheets of the brokers who pamsiaumgiy Jot down every contract the Instant It Is made. A word nr nod from any of them and the trade la cioaca. comparisons after the market are morely a matter of form. The expert floor trader Is ordinarily con tent with small profits. In normaiiv ni. markets an eight or a quarter of a point snare is ordinarily taken. He knows that profit In stocks Is until the stocks that have been bought have , been sold, which i h . v, i brokers find hardest, to teach customers. Paper prom has a way of disappear ing while the trader waits for mm-, r,i. The floor trader goes in quickly and gets out almost as quickly. Profit of S3 on 83,000 Shares. One of his pet aversions Is against leav ing contracts outstanding over nio-ht fht no man knows what the morrow may bring s.i in is one or nis cardinal principles. His contracts are heavy and the risk of an opening of the market far apart from the previous close Is one ho does not care to take. Something like the San Francisco earthquake might happen and the market open far off the previous close. Or It might be announced that Washington had discontinued all antl-corporatlon proceed ings and policies and stocks might soar to the skies. Ordinarily, accordingly, the floor trader concludes all his market commitments In the course of every stock exchange session. But In the course of that session he may have done 40.000 or 60,000 shares and not considered the day unusually exciting. It Is said of Jacob Field that he one traded In about 35,000 shares of stock In one day at a net difference of but S3 when the day was over. Though the floor trader Is most active In active stocks, his trading la most con spicuous on those days when the market Is dull. On a dull day In mid-summer, when the big men of Wall street, the wealthy speculators and most of the cus tomers of the commission houses are away the floor trader remains. ' ' Others may not care for- th. couldn't resist its fascination if he would, and on many such days trades between io yroiessionaia supply much more than half of the business. It Is of markets such as this that the elder Housman was used to remark with a magnificent flourish of the hand: "The croupiers make the play." Didn't Gamble In Balaac. The study of market conditions is all ab sorbing to the expert nrofesairmai of them are busied with obtaining infor- ......., u me attitude of various finan ciers and -outside operators In all their waking hours while the exchange is closed. Some of them do little or nothing else. Wall street attaches the following story to one of them as Illustrating the general disposition: Much against his will, the broker was digged to a dinner party where women were present and the conversation general topics. The dinner companion of me uroker tried to .draw him out on one topic after another, but without success. His mind was on the market. As a last resort she brought up books. 1 "Oh, Mr. Blank" she said, "you like Balzac, I suppose?" "I don't know anything about It," was the reply. "I never do anything, madam, In those curb stocks." They Serve si Purpose. As was noted in the beginning, the aver age customer of the commission houses has no great regard for the professional. His broker Is partly to blame, for the broker who has unwisely advised pur chases of stocks generally has a "pro fessional raid" for his excuse when the advice turns out wrong. Suspicious dabblers at stocks also recall that the professionals were characterised as "hell hounds of the system" when Law son was fulminating against Wall street and that the Bostontan was believed to have selected one of them, Harry Content, as the original of "Barry Conant." the broker villain of one of his pieces. "I suppose we are a friendless lot " one of them recently. "Call us speculators in quotations or market garrblers If you like. At the same time we fit Into the general scheme of things In Wall street Our trades help as often as they harm outside speculators and aek as a balance whenever the market becomes topheavy or oversold. "There are floor traders who consider it their business to discover and watch those pool operations by which the public Is often and most expensively beguiled. Whenever one of us believes that a pool is overdoing things he Is not afraid to sell the stock short In the hope of em barrassing tha pool. "If the short sale Is successful and the pool stock recedes the pool can catch no more gudgeons. Much of the most flag rant manipulation is caught and detected by the floor traders before the manipula tors have time to accomplish their pur. pose. "It Is also certain that the floor traders often make a market for stocks In which apart from time there would at times be no bidders. Always some of tlm can be found to take a chance on any offering whatever, and generally at but a slight ness change Is price. In times of demoralization also our covering of short contracts Is often the best purchasing power that the markets has." Iplte his extraordinary proficiency Id executing contracts, his expert knowledge of all the machinehy of the stock exchange and his ripe and skilled Judgment In ap praising technical conditions, the floor trader seldom amasses a fortune. The average profits are less than In other branches of the brokerage business or In other varieties 6t stock exchange opera tions. Many a floor trader of some years ex perience Just manages to get along. Wall street annals record tho names of very few, who have retired, In the street's es timation, as wealthy men. More of them have retired nervous wrecks, the strain In the end proving too much for them. The trouble with most men who have tried the game Is that there has come a day when they have taken tho wrong side of the market and have contested their position pugnaciously until they have found the profits of a year wiped out in one session. These same men on every other day of the year may have taken losses as quickly as possible when the market was contrary, have "run" In Wall street parlance, as only the professional can run when he sees the market against film. But the ono day of carelessness, pig headedness or loss of self-control may bring ruin. Winner by n Faint. The strain on the nerves Is constant and instances of collapse get Into the papers onco In a while. Six weeks ago there was the report of the cautious floor trader who Incautiously sold Rock Island on the day that the stock Jumped thirty points In five minutes and dropped back again In ten more. Figuring up his accounts he found himself a loser of 3,000 and the stock was still soaring. Loss of his seat stared him in the face and he fainted away. It was a lucky col lapse, for on his recovery the stock was down and he was able to cover at a profit. Nevertheless he is not likely to take long chances again. More recently a floor trader was dragged out of the crowd around the hocking post on the day that stock collapsed. The mar ket was breaking badly against him and he was In a condition of almost entire phy slcad and nervous collapse. Many of the floor traders are also spe cialists. Tlie specialist., liko , Urn fiuOf trader, Is an expert In market values rather than In Intrinsic values. In must of the Btocks, whether active mediums of specu lation or not, there are. two specialists whose business Is principally to execute orders for other brokers while these oth ers are busy elsewhere. The Hughes com mittee received a multitude of complaints against them. It was charged that some of them bought for themselves In advance of orders from others and that they sometimes traded be tween themselves in big lots while Ignoring other orders. But the conclusion was that despite the abuses the business should be endured, since the specialists often create a market where otherwise ' none , would exist. ' THREE VERY LUCKY WINDFALLS A Whale, n Post a are Stamp and a Quarter Found at the Illght Time. NEW YORK, Feb. 6. The conversation In the little bohemlan restaurant had truned on the question of how a man who Is down and out may get on his feet once more. . "I ran up against the queerest windfall that ever came my 'way In Peru," re marked a lanky Australian, removing tbe pipe from between his teeth. "I had lert Sydney three month before to make my way to New York. Worked before the mast on a tramp steamer that took me as far as Valparaiso, Chill, and earned enough on the trip to pay my passage to Iqulque. "Now Iqutque's right In the heart of the nitrate fields and la the most desolate port In South America. It's an awful place In which to go broke, and that's Just what happened to me there. "I got desperate at last and hid myself on board a coasting steamer bound for Calloa. I won't begin to tell you what I suffered as a stowaway. It's enough to say that the captain discovered me when we were four days out from Iqufque. "We were opposite a barren uninhabited stretch of the Peruvian coast, and he was so barbarous as to stop the boat and put me ashore. He gave me two loaves of bread and a flask of water, and with that to sustain me I started out to walk to a town about twenty-five miles further on. "The next morning I was trudging along, hungry and thirsty and half dead from ex haustion, when I caught sight of a moun tainous black mass stranded on the beach about 300 yards away. On approaching nearer I found that it was a sperm whale. The thing had a vile odor, and with barely one look at It I hurried on. "I reached town that same afternoon, and some kind soul staked me to a meal. In the course of conversation I mentioned the dead whale, and what do you suppose ho did? He spread the news among his neigh bors, an expedition was organized, and upon their finding my story to be correct they clubbed together and handed me M In real money. "They said the whale oil would mean a small fortune to them, and as I had dis covered it I ought to get' my share. That $r0 paid my way to Panama, when I easily earned enough to take me on to Nev York." An artist with a tawny beard nodded his head gravely. "Great story," he remarked, "but do you think It beats an experience of mine? I slept for three night In Madison Square with an unknown source of wealth in my pocketbook the whole time. "The fourth day I made a final despair ing search through my clothes for some stray coin that I might have overlooked. I opened the pocketbook, and an old West Indian postage stamp fell into my lap. "I recalled having picked It up on Broad way some months before. There was a stamp dealer's place Just across the way on Twenty-third street, and Just for luck I went over and tossed the stamp on his counter. " "Worth anything?' I asked. "He picked it up, examined it under a magnifying glass, and raised his eyebrows. " 'Hm,' he remarked. 'Jamlca, 1 penny, coat of arms, pinapple watermark. Yes, It's quite rare. I'll give you 25 for It' "He could have knocked me over with a feather. I could hardly mutter, 'All right, I'll sell It.' As soon as he gave me the money, I chased straight down to this ssme restaurant and had the feed of my life. But Just think of the hardships I might have escaped If I'd known what that square of red copper was worth from the beginning." "I'm a bellevar In luck," auid a short f r V toy 03 story writer. "It would have been Impos sible for you to rediscover that posts stamp until your fortunate star was In the ascendancy. I boiler so firmly In luck that I wasn't afraid to give It a fair trial when I was broke. "I was In Phoenix, Ariz., a few years ego, on my uppers, without even S rents to buy a loaf of bread. I stopped by the doorway of a 25-cent restaurant and watched the diners inside with envious eye. "Presently I glanced downward, and there on the pavement at my feet was a shining now quarter. My first Impulse was to rush Into the restaurant and buy a meal, but I reflected that finding the quarter proved that this was one of my fortunate days. "Public gambling was permitted In Arl sona at that time. On the opposite side of the street was a palace of chance. I crossed over and staked my quarter on the roulette wheel, at odds of 4 to 1., I won. and promptly staked my winnings, to gether with the original quarter, at the same odds. "Fortune remained conslstenly on my side, but when I had won $1 I thought it best to quit and Indulge In a badly needed dinner. I was able to leave Phoenix the next day, whereas If I had spent my lucky find at the start I would have been only one meal to the good." "Excellent!" exclaimed the artist. "Now, who has got another story?" But Just then the lights were turned off. PRATTLE OF THE YOUNGSTERS. i ' Wise 01d I'ncle Remember, Tommy, as you go through this world, that you can't get something for nothing. Precocious Nephew O, yes, you can, uncle; when I don't eat nothln' I git an awful pain In my stomach. Little Robert received a . wagon on his birthday morning and within an hour he had broken a wheel. After trying In vain to repair the damage he called in his father, who soon mended It. "Papa." he said, "you are smarter than you look." Six-year-old Ruth was very unhappy be cause one of her many wants had been denied. Her papa Was giving her a lecture and said: "You have everything that most' little girls have,, and I don't think there is another little girl in own has more than you." "Oh, yes," said Ruth, "Alice has." "What has she that you have not?" said papa. "Well, I guess she had a ride to her grandma's funeral." . A noted clergyman was In his study writ ing, when his 6-year-old daughter walked tn and asked: . "What are you writing, papa?" "I am writing a sermon, "daughter." "How do you know what to write, papa?'' "God tells me what to write, daughter." 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