The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-05-27
LUJMBA, TENNESSEE, FRIDAY, MAY s27.. 1870
LIFE IN WALL STREET.
From "Ten Years in Wall Street.

LIFE In WALL STkEET.
l. From Ten Years in Wall Strect."]
The "fierce extremes of Wall street
may be best illustrated by the expert
ence of W. He came INTO the mar
ket in 1852, with six, hundred dollars,
bo~sht cold at no and sold it at 135 !;
4 bought aguin three times as much, sold
it for 100; went INTO Erie at 80, sold it
for 50; bought Pacific Mail at 100, sold
it for 155. In March, 1858, he had S49,-
600 at his bankers. But this was only
the beginning. Something was going
on in Harlem, so he bought 1900 Har-
lem Morse was at work at Pittsburg,
SO he bought 1000 Pittsburg; Erie was
feverishly moving on to 80, SO he
bought 1 1000 Erie. Meanwhile Hooker
was moving on Chancellorsville, and
there was silence in the stock market
for the space of a day. Now the news
came of q aretrogade movement, in plain
English, a repulse, The army was this
side the Rappahannock, the signal was
given, and the cohort of bulls moved on
their enemy's works. Erie sold up to
11O, Pittsburg 1O5, and Harlem in its
proportion. He pocketed SOC, 600 more
| by this venture, and in March, 1854, he
stood $3.50, 900 ahead of the Market
Then for short space he had charm
| ing life. A pair Of spanking bays, tam
dem, whirlel him to the Park in a tall
Belmont. with flunkey in livery OH
the back seat, with bug on his hat
Over his morning repast fioated the ar
omatic steam of Mocha, and the flavor
! of exotic fruits. He lunched of part
ridge, stuffed with truffies, washed
down by q bottle Of Chateau d'Yqem,
or the liquid pellucid gold of the vim
tage of Heres, and his dinner was nine
courses of fish, flesh and fowl at Dell
monico's, iflanked by the most tooth
some entrements, and wines that would
make Musselman forswear his creed.
But soon W suffered change
ga sea change into something mott
rich but strange.n He had a few
"points" on Gelena, then selling for
142. There was pool in it which was
going to put it up to lI5; it was actu-
ally worth 200; there was an actual
dividend of forly per cent. to he declar-
ed; William B. Ogden was in the
movement-these were the points. He
bought 5000 shares. Then he bought
1000 Pittsburg at 123, and 1000 Fort
Wayne at LA. In ten days he lost
S270, 600. This was in the great panic
we met W. six weeks ago. He
informed us that he had Just breakfast
ed on a modest pate of hash and a cup
of something called coffee, but in which
tue strongest imagination could not de-
tect drop of the infusion of the Ara
bian berry. His coat was foxy, his hat
had a suspicious shine, and he was
generally run down at the heel. Such
is the present condition of this individ-
ual, but the future may have great
things i'm store for him. Let us hope it
may. .,... --...-.
RING OPERATIONS.
The average volume of business in an
active year has been estimated SIS, ,000,-
O0O, 600. This does not include the
principal part Of the dealing in Govern
ment tonds 1.-THE amount of which is
enormous, though difficult to be guess
ed, even approximately or the deal
ings in gold, which, in 1869, it is esti-
mated, will amount to $4,000, ,00O, 900,
and in those famous two days, the 24th
and 25th of September, 1869, ran up to
$500, ON, 600, forty. millions changing
hands in five minutes. In 1868 Addi-
son q. Jerome bid for six millions of
old Southern, and was ready to'take it.
Anthony w. Morse was in the habit of
bidding for five or six millions of stock
in one block; but some of these were
bluff bids you will say True. but they
were bidsin open market, nevertheless, /
and illustrate our proposition equally
well. Transfers of a million gold or
stocks from A. to B. ON single bid,
are of almost daily occurrence. The
weekly clearings of the Gold Bank in
flush times exceed a thousand millions
of dollars. The receipts and deliveries
of stocks and gold by one firm, lately,
were one hundred and fifty millions in
a month. Lockwood & Co. have re-
ceived as high as $1,000 in brokerage in
one day, and this at one-eighth per
cent. indicates daily business of four
millions. Morse, the great bull leader
of 1861, had fifteen million dollars
worth of stocks on call at one time.
Among the gigantic operations in
Erie, New York Central, and gold,
during the past two years, such prOmi-
nent firms as Lockwood & Co., David
GrOesbeck & Co., William Heath & Co.,
Rufus Hatch & Co., Smith, Gould,
Martin & Co., etc, have held blocks of
stocks and gold to an almost fabulous
amount. More than one leading ope-
ratOr may be found nearly any day
who is long or short of five millions of
stocks or gold, or both, on his Oun dc-
count, and these are mere flea bites
compared to the great Hudson, Har-
lem, and Central pool of 1860, which, it |
is said, hold directly or by proxy from
fifty to sixty millions in these stocks,
besides controlling interest of fifteen |
or twenty millions more in the Lake
Shore consolidated line.
How can such immense business be |
transacted? A large part of it is done
by the payment of the difference be-
tween the buying and selling price, the
securities bought and sold not being |
actually delivered. The remaining
portion of the business is done by means |
of certified checks, a convenient device |
of the credit system. Suppose B, a
broker, has bought of c, broker, 5000 |
shares of Lake Shore at 80, for which |
he has to pay $3.50, 1000. b, having a
capital of only $4,000, but being of
good standing and credit, the bank |
where he keeps his account will certi-
fy his check as good for S45O, 900, though |
he then may have only $4,000 on de-
posit. Before 8 o'clock p. NJ. b will |
have obtained loan OH the 5000 shares,
or have delivered the stock to other
parties, who will pay him for it in GER
titled checks, which he will deposit in |
his bank, and thus make good his over
draft.
HOW TO OPERATE.
A most weighty maxim, verified by
Wall street experience, is this: "Cut |
short your losses, and let your profits
rum" This has been the making of |
many speculator, and yet how few
have the nerve to practice it. Pat.
Hearne, the late noted sporting-man,
was wont to operate thus. He would
buy one hundred shares of some stock,
and when it rose one per cent. he would
buy another hundred shares, and so on.
AS soon as it fell one per cent. he sold
the whole. This, everybody will say,
is sound plan of operation, Z In the
rise of 1854, a well known young ope-
ratOr made $4,000 i'm Reading, by ope-
rating on this principle, and lost it all
by forsaking this principle and letting
his losses run. Again, in 1865, he sold
short 100 shares of Erie, on credit, hav-
ing no money to use as a margin; as
the price fell he kept selling. This was
during the Ketchum break in August.
In four days he made ST., 600, but few
weeks after he lost the whole by violat-
ing his principle of operation.
The practice of selling stocks short
will be found, i'm the end, to be invari-
ably q losing business. For while the