The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-25
STOCK


Gath's New York Letter.
Stock is certificate Of ownership in corpor-
alton property, like railroads, gas companies,
quicksilver companies, mines, or anything
that requires like consultations of money.
Just as you take a piece of ground when you
make a town and divide it into lots and par
Gel those lots out among the incorporates,
so the stock is parceled out among the nu-
merous people, often strangers to each other,
who unite TO own a railroad. This form OF
property has a great advantage over real
property. 1t is, indeed, a kin of paper
money and an especially strong kind of Sc
curity. If you own a house or a farm, you
must often wait for a customer when you
want to sell; but stock, if it be good,
can be sold any day in the week, and
generally three times a day in the stock ex-
changes. The first stock exchange in this
country was established in Philadelphia, but
New York soon put up another, and in a lit
tie while it became the main stock exchange
of the United States, because capital
from abroad and enterprise in corporations
soon began to center here, and the original
settlers OF New York brought with them a
financial genius from their forefathers, who
operated on the Bourses of Amsterdam,
Paris, London and Frankfort. To put a
stock on the Exchange list is called listing
it, and it can only be done by the consent of
the governors of the Exchange and by con-
forming to certain proper things-such as
making regular and honest resports, and pro-
ducing them at the Exchange.
The business of the brokers, who are now
about eleven hundred in number, is one of
the most absorbing pursuits in the world.
During the hours when the Exchange is
open, say from 10 to 3 o'clock, a period OF
only about five hours, there are a series of
calls down the list of those stocks; but not
much attention is paid to it, since the mem
bers group themselves on the floor OF the
Exchange, and when any particular stock is
lively that group does all the buying and
selling Oft. Tn reason there is so much
bowling in the Exchange is that there is a
kind OF auction for four or five hours. You,
for instance, have 1000 shares of stock in the
Panhandle road, and are possessed of infor-
nation that you had better sell it before it
shall go down, which may be tomorrow. So
you employ a broker and pay him a commits
sion, that commission fixed by rule, to get
your stock off. He must get it off on the
Jump. He must have Il countenanCe indie
pendent of any fear or apprehension. In the
larger operations OF the Stock Exchange there
comes a class OF customers to these different
brokers who are intent upon making huge
sums OF money i'll a very short time, and the
skill and integrity of the broker are the first
things to be considered.
A man on the Stock Exchange is in appar-
emily feverish excitement for four or five
hours OF the day, He has his office full of
customers, some wanting to buy, some to
sell, some with small orders, some with
large, and he must get all his work done in u
little while. and do it to the best of his
ability. The telegraph is ticking off in the
brokers' Office, where the customers sit, the
instantaneous changes in these stocks, and a
difference of one hour would often be fatal to
an operator. For speculative purposes the
stocks are generally bought on margins
that is to say, a small amount of money is
put up, enough to cover the broker from loss
by fluctuations, and if the fluctuations con-
tinue on the wrong side the broker calls for
more margin. This instantaneous, of,hand
business could not be conducted by
the cool and quiet means employed in ordi-
nary business, where men sit with their day
books and ledgers, and put everything
down, and take the money or a note on the
spot. Integrity is the first thing among these
gamblers.
The brokers themselves are not gamblers
at all, or ought not to be, but mere commits
sion dealers. The temptation, however, for
brokers to go in on their own account is very
great. Sometimes their customers seduce
them to take all interest in a large general
speculation. Among the brokers a mere
word passed and a little memorandum jotted
down on a piece of paper is all that is neces-
sary to make a sale good. Within a certain
time the stock is delivered, just as truly as if
it was bought for investment. These stocks,
if not paid for, can be sold again at the next
mornings board-for there is no respite or
mercy in operations of this kind any more
than at a sheriff's sale.