Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-03-19
, put his information before the

to put his information before the
public.
It runs something like this. as the
Union Pacific deal begins to develop:
The recent activity In Union Pacific
is attributed to buying by Mr. Gould.
His friends say that he is very bull
ish on the stock, whose earnings for
! the six months just ending will show
very large increase" A half hour
later this announcement is made:
''Some of the largest capitalists in
the street are with Gould in the Union
Pacific deal, and very much higher
prices are predicted for the stock"
Then comes something like this: 1.-The
January earnings of Union Pacific
show an enormous increase over taose
of a year ago, and they justify the
! predicted increase in the March divi-
dend. Friends of the Road say that it
never was so prosperous.
| Then it is that the average specula-
tor begins to wonder whether he ha0
not better buy little Union Pacific or
increase his holdings if he has bought,
and while he contemplates, in rushes a
wide-awake young man waving slip
of paper about the size of an ordinary
bank check, shouting: Sell you a put
on Union Pacific for thirty days. 100
shares ninety for 1925. The stock just
sold for nnety-one. Cheapest put you
ever saw, Signed bv Sage, 100" This
announcement simply means that Sage
W II insure any one who will give HIM
1925 against loss from the decline of
Union Pacific below ninety for the next
thirty days. 1t is pretty conclusive
proof that Sage believes that Union Pa
cific is to advance. just then another
News Agency slip is handed IN. 1t
says: .'Instead of an increase in the
regular March dividend of the Union
Pacific Road it is now said that there
viii be a stock or scrip dividend of
about twenty per cent. Mr.. Gould is
very much annoyed because this infor-
nation has been made public before he
and his friends have acquired all the
stock they wanted. 1t is evident that
there is to be great rise in the
stock
And so all day long flows the newsin
a dozen different ways that Union
Pacific is to boom. The put and call
brokers carry it from office to office.
The newspaper financial articles all
discuss it. The stock is very active in
the Exchange and is advancing. 1t
looks as though it would never stop
going up. Everybody who speculates
at length has purchased. If he didnot
get in at the beginning of the deal he
is sure to at the end. If he did not be-
lieve the stories about the magnificent
prospects of Union Pacific when they
first came out he is sure to now, for
they have been reiterated hourly from
the first. The stock has advanced from
81 to 50. The reports are that it will
90 to los or no. The reports have all
proved true thus far; why not prove
true hereafter? So he buys. The stock
holds very firm for a day or two, but
does not advance any more. The good
news begins to fall off. The put and
call brokers are offering privileges on
some other stock. Nothing more is
heark of an extra dividend. The price
begins to decline. Now it is "a, now
90 3-4, now 90 IA. now 80. What s
the matter with Union Pacitic9" cry
the spectators, in alarm. "Oh, Gould S
unloading" say the bears. The specu-
lators rush to get out. Down goes the
market under their offerings. They
have sold at loss. Gould had unload
ed on them. He had sold them the
stock they had bought at 95, and ten
to one he buys it back of them when
they unload at SO to 92 1-2. And so the
Wall street game goes on year in and
year out. 1t is a losing game every
time for the beginner, and usually for
the veteran speculator.-N. Y. Special
to Courier-Journat.