The record-union., 1893-03-14
SECRETS OF WALL STREET
Easily Exposed Because of Leak.
Clerlzs-Legal Decisions Sold.

Easily Exposed Because of Leaky
Clerks-Legal Decisions Sold.
Wall street is overrun with men OF all
ages and descriptions who have straight
tips" to sell. Some are valuable, while
others are not. y broker said on this
subject to a New York ,SUa man: st is
practically impossible to get any big deal
which Affects the street started without a
leak. Documents have 10 be drawn, and
lawyers, clerks and stenographers have
TO be taken into confidence. Nearly all
OF these will themselves invest on the
strength of the information so obtained,
or else will get friends to do so. \ man
who has really valuable information can
make money out Of it in vail street.
Most brokers will make him partner in
the transactions based upon his Tip with
out requiring him to put up dollar.
The consequence is that all the clerks,
stenographers, male and female, and
once boys are constantly on the lookout
Tor information. The well-knoWn
manipulators III the street are watched by
many of their employees as MIR. ByrneS'
men might watch a crook, and they have
to be mighty careful about letting any
papers lie around loose.
The news Of the Reading deal was
known in the street several days before il
became public, and the causes that led
to the rise in Manhattan were well under
fore the information that extensive
privileges would PROBABLY be granted to
the company had been announced in the
newspapers. Some of the information
peddlers make speciality of obtaining
decisions OF courts affecting stocks dealt
in upon the street in advance of their
publication. How they do it l don't
know, L am sure. The decision in the
famous Bell telephone suit was peddied
out in the street some days before il was
published, and copies were shown TO
brokers and spectators, who agreed to
whack up on the profits. The decision
against the sugar trust was also sold Oh
the street.
Some brokers don't play fair with the
men from whom they get information.
The fellow who got the Bell telephone
decision, for instance, was frozen out by
all he dealt with. They acted upon his
information, made a lot of money out of
It, and then refused to recognize him.
OF course, he had no redress. He could
not get anything out OF them by suing,
for the courts won't uphold any such
gam bling agreements. In fact, II is al
most impossi Dle to make any contract of
the kind that would hold. At least, |
never heard of one. The man with the
Information has to rely entirely upon the
fairness and honor OF the man to whom
he imparts it, One way in which some
brokers and spectators get the better of
him is to pretend willingness to divide
with him if the information is sa,isiac-
tory. When they know all he can tell
they say it does not convince them and
they don't care to act on it. As soon as
his back is turned they Ike adv ntlge of
it just the same. OF course, no honor
able man would do that.
At the same time the man who acts
upon the tips is much more apt to get
left than the fellow who furnishes them.
For every really valuable tip offered on
the street there are fifty which are bogus.
Many false tips are sprung deliberately
for the purpose of affecting stock. The
tipsters are like those at the horse-races.
Sometimes their tips are steers, and their
purpose Is to affect a stock in the oppo-
site direction from that which they have
suggested, just as the Bogus tipster will
name horse to win who has no chance
of 1t, so that the betting on that horse
may increase the odds offered on the
horse that he really expects to win. No
broker or speculator will act on a tip
nowadays unless he is thoroughly con-
vlnced by documentary or equally sat
istactory evidence of its truth. Even
where a tip is straight, however, it
may not be followed by the results
anticipated. Stocks are not always
affected by the earning capacity or CON
dition of the corporations they repre-
sent. In fact, very frequently the price
at which stock sells on the exchange is
far from its proper value"