The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-04-19

| make all below declins OF seven
elghthsf but the average huctuation of
the market ism that much per day.
Investing in puts and calls by out
siders then is about asunsafe as the club
and fund business?''
sit doesn't involve so much money,
but so far as it goes it is about as bad an
investment. There is only one class OF
people who can make any money out o.
puts and calls, and they are the scalpers,
who buy them, and then watch the
market closely, and operate on the puts
and calls. They don't make any money
on the fluctuations above the call or be-
low the put; it is privilege that they
hold to speculate on through the day.
But an outsider can't make any money
by dealing in them. - Chicago Tribune.
In a subsequent interview with the
senior member of one of the leading
firms of the city the Tribune reporter
CLEANED the following. The gentleman
interviewed said:
In your article to-day you have given
currency to the statement of some par
ties to the effect that nearly everybody
on the Board of Trade is engaged in this
Illegltlmate trading. | deny that alto
gether. A great number of members of
the Board do not, and never did, trans.
act any OF that class of business, either
before or after the State law was passed
which outlawed it. For ourselves we
emphatically deny the imputation; and
l want TO state further. fors the credit
OF the membership of the Board of Trade,
that there is no scarcity of prominent,
honorable and responsible houses on the
Board who can and do transact salts
factory business in speculative orders
without touching put and calls. I con-
siderit humiliating fact that the presi
dent is engaged in it; 1 am exceedingly
sorry to know it is so. I don't say that
no reputable house has anything to do
with puts and callS-there is no necessity
to go so far. What l do say is that, as
a general rule, the most reputable house,
don t touch that class of business. We
have never done it, though we have lost
valuable customers because of our re-
afusals We can do a satisfactory bust
ness without it, and we prefer to have
nothing to do with it, IRE 5pective of the
law. You can see that it is in the inter-
ests OF those who are engaged in it to
represent that others are in it also. Con.
se1uently most of them will assert that
the principal man on the Board are en-
gagged in it more OF. less. Don't believe
anything of the kind, for Is is contrary
to the fact. The amount of this illegal
trade that is being done is certainly a
revelation to most people, ue
''Can you form an approximate idea
as to the number of members of the
Board Of Trade who transact business in
puts and calls. S@4
Eyes; you may go pretty near It
There can not be one-third of the mem
bers at it'll should say 1t was limited to
about One-quarter. Here is how I cal
ealatei The membershiprof the Call
Board Is about 1000. and OF these 800,
or four-fifths, are members of the Board
OF Trade. Any member of the Board of
Trade who, deals In puts and calls is
also member of the Call Board, for this
put-and-call trading is done In the Call
Board after the cali is over. OF these
500 members, probably not more than
the half do any of that business, and az
the total membership of the Board of
Trade is. over 1900, you can see what
the per centage is. In any case that
four-fifths of the Call Board members in
eludes all the members of the Board of
Trade likely to be engagedin this illegal
business, SO you can Understand those
statements that nearly all are engaged
must be untrue.h See aEF