"Sucker born every minute" (1887)

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Fri Jun 1 01:12:27 UTC 2001


PLAIN TRUTHS
ABOUT STOCK SPECULATION:
HOW TO AVOID LOSSES IN WALL STREET,
WITH A VISITORS' DIRECTORY IN AND AROUND NEW YORK
Brooklyn, N. Y.
1887
(No author, but "Copyright by E. V. Smith, Proprietor"--ed.)

   I didn't finish reading this book; it was one of many financial books on this Columbia University microfilm reel.

Pg. 2:
   WALL STREET GLOSSARY.
Bulls...
Bears...
.."corner or squeeze"...
"Loaning rates"...
.."loan crowd"...
Bull pools...
Bear pools...

Pg. 3:
Oversold...
Overloaded...
Tape speculators...
Averaging...
Margins...

Pg. 4:
.."carry"...
.."left"...
Call and Time Loans...

Pg. 5:
Points...
   "The Street" means the exchanges and the brokerage offices within the speculative arena on Wall and the neighboring streets.
   "Cats and Dogs," also called the Fancies, are non-dividend paying stocks, which have small intrinsic value, except to be inflated like "Suth Sea Bubbles," to the profit of the bulls or sold short and raided down in the interest of the bears.
Liquidation...

Pg. 6:
Washes or Wash Sales...

Pg. 7:
Room Traders...
Stock Privileges...
A Put...

Pg. 8:
A Call..
A Spread...
A Straddle...

Pg. 9:
   ..the Stock Indicators, or "Tickers," and the "News Tape."

Pg. 13:
   "Seats" are a myth so far as the boardroom is concerned.  It is an open floor with not sittings enough for more than 50 or 60 of the 1,100 brokers.

Pg. 22:
  WALL STREET'S LAMB.
Wall Street had a little Lamb,
   It's fleece was very thick;
At every turn the market took
   The Lamb was sure to stick.  (...)

Pg. 23:
   In Wall Street, of all places, "nothing succeeds like success."

Pg. 94:
   Wall Street is full of mines and countermines, traps and drag-nets to catch suckers.

Pg. 98:
   The saying, "A fool is born every minute," is said to have originated with one of the most prominent operators in Wall street.  Certain it is that a new crop of fools is always counted upon and seldom fails to respond to the allurements offered.
(See the ADS-L archives.  Jay Gould may or may not have said it, but it wasn't P. T. Barnum!--ed.)

Pg. 135:
   He is still trying his luck in a small way and "waiting like Micawber for something to turn up."

Pg. 141:
   As long as the concern confined its business to oil and mining stocks "everything was lovely and the goose hung high."

Pg. 142:
  ...bucket shop..."cheap Johns"...

Pg. 171:
   ...the great Moguls of "the Street"...



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