The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-03-29

Qainsay the wisdom OF solomon.
The point-giver is of Protean build
Sometimes he makes your acquaitance
accidentally as IL were. Sometimes no
brings a letter of introction from some
nerson who doesn't thoroughly know
him. Then, again he advertises, When
he advertises il is done something like
these announcements, which can be
cut by the dozen out of any Sunday
newspaper of large circulation;
CONFIDENTIAL CLERK to prominent op-
that viii yield good profits Address Pronts
1855. -ofice.
A GREAT OPPORTUNITY for making
money in stocks. For particulars soafoss
Active, box Gl, - once.
A.-wANTED-Party with capital TO take
advantage of my reliable information on
stock market. address Success, box "a. -
Ofice.
II you address either of these ingen,
ious gentlemen, he will call on you II
he thinks you are worth calling upon
and after some conversation touching
the necessity Of caution and confidence
on both sides, and the superior sources
of information enjoyed upon his sioe'
he will tell you TO GO at once TO your
broker and buy X, Y, shares Ihas
Is. unless he has just advised somo
other person to buy X, Y, u; in which
case he will earnestly urge you to has
ten, without loss of time, TO sell \, I.
q. As for the profits, in all cases he is
to have half the net gain, and he leaves
1t to your honor TO let him know what
the amount Of the gain is.
IL ten persons act upon his advice,
five will gain and five will lose. The,
loser he has nothing to do with' ne
would prefer not to see them; but he
has the names of the winners In MS
memorandum book and he rarely fails
To collect from them. This pitfall looks
like a shallow artifice and it is; but a
great many people slide down its sides
in the course Of any given year. Else
how should the professional point-giver
flourish as he does and have so much
cash wherewith to advertise in the Sun
day newspapers?
One of the worst, deepest, most dan
| perous and most largely tumbled into OF
| all the pitfalls of Wall street is dug by
operators themselves, and seems TO be
/ the result of vice of the human men
tai constitution, which, so far as we
know, is ineradicable when once it be-
| comes habit. This is the practice OF
taking small profits and large losses.
A speculator puts up 10 per cent. mar
gin and buys X, Y, u at75. The shares
fall to "A, 78, ~ and so on. Now if he
knows the property to be sound why
should he relinquish it merely because
the market price is lower than it wasP
On the contrary, If he can AFFORD it, 1t
may be policy for him to buy another
lot at 70, and even another lot at 65,
besides protecting his first pur-
chase.
But suppose he is merely speculator'
whose gains proceed from turning a
small capital frequently, is it not his
plain cause of action to drop his pur-
chase at 7S and take chances OF buying
in againl Most of us would say, "Yes,
bv all means" But as a matter OF fact
he will not drop out until the 10 pei
cent margin is exhausted.
But if Y, Y, z had gone up to II o.
7s, and then shown tendency to sat
off, the same operator would at onc'
have closed the transaction, thus show
ing willingness to gain by twos ane
threes and lose by tens.
An English novelist once wrote
'eThere are at this moment 10000 Eng
lishmen wandering homeless and pen
niless over the continent of Europe be
cause they would not lead trumps a
the proper timer So any well-informe
broker can say, of his own persona
knowledge and experiences: There ar
thousands of American citizens VIII
are to-day poor because they would no
cut short their losses and let thei
profits run on"
This is also a dangerous pitfall
which men dig for themselves; namely
the belief that because a certain de-
cription of shares mounts and mount
and scars above previous calculation
of the general market, therefore IL
, desirable 10 buy into it after IL hs
mounted during long period of day
, This belief is almost universal, and "
J it directly contradicts our experienc
, and the laws Of Nature.
. We know that the higher the way
: gets the breaker is at the top, whi
its base is always strong; and we ais
{ know that whatever goes up has tel
i. dency to descend again, and that ii
: time always comes when the holders
: any commercial property, no matt
o how desirable, prefer money to pro
e erty.
e But the majority of outside operate
Q regard the market as strongest wh'
> prices are up and weakest when pric
l. are down, and act accordingly; Where
/. those who know base their actions {
3 the firm truth thai the market is nev
t so weak as when il Is high, and nev
/. so strong as when it is low; being
y fact like that ancient wrestler wh
n whenever forced down by his anita
Is onist SO that his body touched
1, ground. Immediately received fro
$, Mother Earth redoubled allowance
Or strength. This also is one of those p
n falls which an inhcrant vice of the b
IT man mind continually impels spec
al lators TO dig for themselves, a spec
II. ~. 4. s,l. g.. ic