The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-30
WALL STREET GAMBLING.
Why so Manp People Fail to Specu-
late Successfully.


| New York, April 29.-Anything that is
worth doing at all is worth the doing as
well as possible In order to do anything
well, one must study the subject, not
! necessarily in books, because books are,
| except to the laying down Of principles,
most unsatisfactory teachers. They can t
answer questions, and no one can learn
much about anything without asking
! questions, whether from persons or from
facts, or both. But one must study any
subject in the light of the most available
and attainable means.
The stock market is a most fruitful and
| fascinating field of study II fascinates
more influential, well-to-do and able
| bodied men to-day than any other fact in
American life. Horse racing, theatricals
| fashion, the fine arts, in such % COmpeti-
ton are distanced to such an extent that
they are out of sight, in the rear. And
of course great deal of study is bestowed
upon it, And the reasons why the results
of so much study are not always common
surate with the labor and time employed
are numerous Some of them are sub
stantially as follows
People have preconceived notions They
are not willing to clear their minds of ex-
listing theories and bring themselves down
to close dealing with facts.
They are apt to base their conclusions on
the opinions of others. Now, opinions
as to the value Of anything are sure to
differ and opinions as to the future values
differ still more widely, just as the spol1es
of a wheel are wider apart all the time
while you travel away from the hub.
When you reach out into the future YOU
are getting away from the hub of the
present.
They are frequently unwilling to act on
e "a
sires and interests, and that involve the
acceptance of immediate losses. They
resemble the wounded man who refuses
TO let the surgeon cut off his leg when he
is told that amputation will probably save
his life, and that there is a slenderChance
of otherwise saving it, and who takes the
slender chances.
They are apt to study in a superficial
manner, without thoroughness, using
scraps and smatterings Of knowledge
when even the most exact information is
hardly sufficient.
Other reasons could be adduced. but
they might be needless. The king ex-
cused a municipality of a town who
neglected to fire salute in his honor on
their giving him the first one of fifty good
reasons-that they had no powder The
other forty-nine were suffered to remain
undivulged. Enough reasons have been
adduced here to explain why so many peo-
pie fail to successfully study the stock
market.
But while it is very easy to pick to
pieces the various systems that are an
nounced as sure to win on the stock ex-
change, and to criticise the modes Of study
of prejudiced and slovenly students. it is
also most difficult TO lay down absolute
rules for the successful study of the share
market. One double-headed and invaria-
BILE rule there is, but it requires large
capital and patience to practice it, 1t is
this: Buy only what you can pay for; buy
when cheap, and sell when dear. The
veriest financial infants can see the force
of this rule.
And yet this precepthas its weak points
For instance, how is person TO be abso-
lutely certain that given stock is CHEAP
or dear at given time} BY comparison}
But If he compares the price with what
it was at any past period, he must also be
able to state all the facts that existed at
that period having any bearing on this
stock, and since these facts may run into
the millions as to number, and into all
parts OF the country as to place, our
learner has heavy contract on hand
Then, too, he must bring to bear a clear
Judgment and a resolution such as soldiers
exercise when they charge batteries,
and then he must be prepared
next day to find out that he was wrong.
After careful and exhaustive search
into all the material at hand, he buys
shares at, say 60 per cent, of par, as being
cheap at the price, and really worth more
money, and next day they may be offered
at 90 He then has really lost $40 on each
share, and if he holds the purchase, and
1t ultimately amounts to par, he has still
lost $40 per share.
And suppose he sells on any given day
at par, and a week after the shares sell
at ITO, he then loses another $40 per share
So that this safe road to success has its
stumbling blocks as well as others, al
though they are not so dangerous In
such road there arc no deadly, danger
GUS pitfalls The men who travel it are
are not tempted to defalcations and sui
cides.
Horace Greeley once said that the way
to resume specie payments was to resume;
and it might also be said that the way to
study the stock market is to study it, One
distinguished and generally successful
stock operator of the period is credited
with being in the daily receipt of numer-
Gus pieces of information from various
parts OF the country as to the condition of
crops, weather freights, passenger traffic,
in short, all facts that 20 to make up
the status of railroad enterprises
These private bits of information
hAO lOV OpGI W lit general DuDllC /,
they cost too much and call for too much
machinery; but the bureaus of public in
formation are continually sending out in
telligence, and it is mostly trustworthy
The class of facts must be distinguished
from rumor
RumOr is, as a rule, contemplate and
Enthusiastically. 1t has been compared to
an animated thing that begins its career
by being small and compact, but as it
stalks along it becomes larger and less
definite as to form, until at last
it is like a monstrous cloud that has
neither shape nor consistence, and finally
disappears, no one knows how or where.
But to study facts leads to generally quite
accurate conclusions; and accurate con-
illusions are apt to lead to wise transac-
tons.
Thus the facts of large harvests in the
year 1891 in the United States, coupled
with the facts of poor harvests in EurOpe
in the same year, led to the conclusion
that our grain would be in demand for
foreign shipment, and that the earnings of
our railroads would be increased The con-
illusions were sound and the earnings were
increased, and judicious students of the
market bought stocks for a rise Then
the fact that stocks rose and kept on
rising, coupled with the fact that the gen
eral public was a buyer, and with the ad-
dltonal fact that the public prefers to be
a buyer, and TO buy at high prices. and
not 70 buy at all unless prices are hfph
led these Same ftsiorfe cttl ,,,t. Iii