Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-02-13
Wall Street English.

II
street, where transactions amounting to
nltY or sixty million dollars frequently
take place IN one day, only few are un.
derstood by the general public. You.
my good Sir, are not Spectator; of
course not. You do not care a button
about "cliques' and Corners" and,
whether bulls" squeeze" shorts" or
pears" hammer the Market" your
mind IS easy and your conscience clear.
hut, nevertheless, you may possibly be
willing to know the meaning of the
strange phrases which form the idiom of
the great financial center, ands which. if
you read the money articles in the
dallles, doubtless sometimes set yor
| wondering at the queer antics our Ian
guage is compelled to play.
| AS all the world knows, the regular
| operators in stocks are divided into two
| bulls" and clears" Sometimes
these animals change their species. bulls
| becoming bears and bears bulls, as a fall
ing or rising market may lead their
honest hearts. The main object of the
pulls is to advance prices; that of the
bears, to depress. Frequently, when the
market is rising, and there are prospects
or continued advance, spectators who
have consOrted with the bears for several
months will suddenly desert them and
JON the ranks of the bulls, remaining there
Whlle fortunes smiles ON that side, and
| rushing back to the bears the moment the
tickle goddess indicates an intention
to transfer her favors On the
other hand, habitual bulls often leave
their own pasture for the den Of Bruin
when the market shows signs of turning
downward, and remain in Bruins COM
pany till their regular grazing ground
again becomes particularly attractive.
or, to simplify the matter, a Spectator
WILL be bull or bear according to the
prospect OF making money on one side or
the other. One who is bull to -day NAV
be bea- tomorrow, and rice Uersa.
Bears thrive most on public calamities.
ANY occurrence that unsettles values
puts money in their pockets. The burn
ing OF Chicago was worth many millions
to the bear interest in Wall street. o.
caslonally the leaders Of this interest de-
wise scheme to shake confidence in
financial soundness, and possibly bring on
panic, IN order that they may break the
market and buy stocks at low prices.
1hey 90 not care how much the commu-
NIFTY may suffer, or how many nrer-
chants, bankers or manufacturers NAV
be ruined, provided their own interest is
served. Generally they are utterly un-
scrupulous as to the means EMPLOYED to
accomplish their object, and the more
embarrassment and suffering they cause
TO others, the more likely are their own
transactions to yield them handsome
profits. Yet II there were no bears in
Wall street the Stock Exchange would be
found rather dull place.
The terms '1ong" and "short" are of
respective application to the bull and
bear parties. The bulls are always '1ong"
Of stock, and the bears are always
short" The Spectator who has stocks
on hand, which he bought with the ex-
pectatlon Of selling at higher prices, is on
the bull side, and, in the presence Of the
street is "long." A bear seldom has
stocks on hand His business is to sell
short" that IS, to sell property which he
has not got, intending to buy and deliver
when prices are lower. Generally the
stock is to be delivered the day after it is
sold, but quite often the bear does not
buy it for month, or two or three
months. How, then, can he deliver it
within twenty-fOur hours By borrowing
from another person. There is in Wall
street regular system for borrowing
stock. The broker who represents the
from another broker, to whom ne gives
check as security for the value of what
is borrowed. The transaction is good
for one day only, but it may be renewed
the next day, and then the next; and thus
several weeks may pass before the stock
is really purchased for delivery. Mean
time, the seller, if he belongs to a clique
or pool" is trying every day to depress
prices, IN order that he may buy the stock
at lower figure than that at which he
sold it; This is the operation known as
"hammer;ng the market" and very ex-
citing one it sometimes is.
But the bears are often badly
"squeezed," and then they make rush
to cover" When the bulls earn that
there is a large "short'' interest in any
particular stock, they put their heads to-
gether and get up q corner" When q
stock is said to be "cornered," tne mean
ing is that it is controlled by a clique
The clique holds enough Of it to control
the market and exact such terms as may
be desired. An upward movement is
suddenly developed, and then the bears
who have sold Short" in expectation of
lower prices, become alarmed, and begin
to buy. In the majority Of cases the men
who work the advance are the very ones
who bought what the bears sold, and they
are now selling it to them, at high figures,
for delivery back to themselves.
Twisting" is the process of making
the bears pay high prices for what they
probably sold at low prices. and "cover-
ing' is the operation of buying stock to
close short" contracts. Once in while
a stock is so closely ''cornered" that it
can be borrowed only at enormous inter-
est for the days use-perhaps at a rate
that is equal to one thousand per cent.
per annum. An operation of this sort is
the worst squeeze" of all, and it is not
to be wondered at that, as the gentlemen
Of the Stock Exchange say, the bears
generally 'squeal" under it. One shrewd
manipulation of stocks is known to have
cleared fifty thousand dollars in one day
by loaning fancy stock that he had
"cornered." But the same gentleman
sometimes gets into "corner" prepared
by others. Il is commonly understood
that he was feeced to the amount of
nearly two millions during the lively
Northwestern" gale, few weeks since.
Puts" and "calls" are terms of more
than ordinary difficulty for the uninitiat-
ed to understand. Their meaning may,
however, be made comparatively plain.
A, for instance, proposes to putt B.
that is, deliver to him a certain amount
of a certain stock, within a certain time
at a price agreed upon when the contract
is made. and gives B a bonus of one, two
or three per cent, as the case may be, for
tho nrivi1epa This is &C mt IF the