The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-19

margins the ODDS are 100 20 10, on = Per
cent. 100 10 So, on > per cent. 100 20 ~;
/ wherens the operator who pits UP 10 per
cent. margin has OILY odds Of D.. per cont.
rgairs- him, with u fair prospect IN any
ordinary ordIt.on Of the market Of NOT be-
ing sold out for want of margin. I be man
who puts up 10 yer cent. usually has an
other 10 per cent. in reserve, which is al
most sure - carry him ont in the end % a
profit.
One Of the nentest. deepest. most precip-
. itOus pitfalls IS dug Tor the uuwary by the
professional point-gIver. King Solomon Is
re-utei SO saving in the Book OK Proverbs
. surely in vain IL the net spread in the
. sight of auy bird.n The people who slide
uuIuerously and with alacrity into the holes
dug for them by the givers Of points seem
. to gaiusay the wisdom of Solomon.
/ The p0int-giver Is Of Protean build.
] Sometimes he makes your acquaintance &C
/ cidentslly, as it were. Sometimes he brings
[ a letter Of introduction from some person
/ who doesn't thoroughly know him Then,
| again, be advertises. W hen be advertises
| Il IS done something ike one Of these an
/ uOuucements, which can lie cut BY the dozen
out Of any Sunday newspaper Of large cir
/ culation:
( C0NFIDENTIAL CLERK to prominent opera
/ ~ tor knows of good dividend paying STOCK
/ that will yield good profits. Address Profits.
/ ls5, -- Office.
] 4 hL.Aa opportunity lot lllhhilE llOuey III
| stocks. For particulars address Active
/ box 202, -- Office
A WANTED, party with capital TO take
| a. advantage of my reliable information on
stock market. Address Success, box p, -
Office
If you address either of these ingenious
gentlemen, be will call on you if he thinks
you are worth calling upon, and
after some conversation touching
the necessity of caution ana con-
confidence on both sides, and the superior
sources OF Information enjoyed upon his
side, he viii tell you TO 90 a t once 70 your
broker aud buy X, Y, u shares. That is,
unless be has just adYised some other per-
son to buy Y, y u In which case he will
earnestly urge you to hasten, without loss
of time, to sell Y, Y, Z. As for the profits,
in all cases he is to have half the net gain,
and he leaves it TO your honor to let him
know what the amount Of the gain is
If ten persons act upon his advice five
will gain and five will lose. The losers he
has nothing TO do with, he would prefer
not to see them; but he has the names of the
winners in his memorandum book and he
rarely fails 70 collect from them. This pit
fall looks like shallow artitlce, and it is;
but great many people slide down its
sides in the course of any given year. Else
how should the professional polnt-giver
flourish as he does and have so much cash
wherewith to advertise in the Sunday news
psperss
one Of the worst, deepest. most danger
Gus and most largely tumbled into Of all the
pitfalls of Wall street is dug by the oper-
ators themselves, and seems u be the result
of a vice Of the human mental constitution,
which, 30 far as we know, IS lneradIcable
when once it becomes a habit. This is the
practice OF taking small profits and large
losses
A speculetor puts up 10 per cent margin
and buys Y, y, u at I5. The shares fall to
"A, IS, ~ and so on. Now if he knows the
property 10 be sound and really valuable,
there is no reason why he should relinQuish
it merely because the market price is lower
than 10 was. Ga the contrary, if be can al
ford it, it may be policy for him to buy an
other lot az 10, and even another lot at %,
besides protecting his first purchase.
But suppose he is merely a Spectator,
whose gains proceed from turning a small
capital frequently, is 1t not his plain course
Of action to drop his purchase at IS and take
chances of buying in again. Most of us
would say, "Y es, by all means But as
matter of fact be will not drop out until the
10 per cent. margin IS exhausted
But IL Y, Y, u bad gone up to n or rs
and then shown a tendency to sag off, this
same OPERATOR would at once have closed
the transaction, thus showing a willingness
to gain BY twos and threes and lose BY tens.
An English novelist once wrote: There
are ct tbs moment lO, 600 Englishmen wan
dering homeless and penniless over the con
tinent Of Europe because they would not
lead trumps at tue proper timel" So any
wel-informed broker can say, Of his own
personal knowledge and experience: There
are thousands Of American citizens who are
to-day poor because they would not cut
short their losses and let their profits run
on"
THE ia alsO dau0aro,,s oisFan -,h;ah ...o..
dig for themselves: namely, the belief that
because 9 certain description of shares
mounts and mounts and s9ars above pre-
vious calculations Of the general market
therefore is is desirable to buy into il after
il has mounted during long period OF dAys
This belief Is almost universal, and vat 1t
directly contradicls our experience end the
laws OF nature.
We know that the higher the wave gets the
weaker it IS az the top, while Is base is al,
ways strong; and We also know shat what
ever goes up has a tendency to descend
again, and that the time always comes
when the holders of any commercial prop
erty, no matter how desirable, prefer money
to property.
But the majority of outside operators re-
gard the market as strongest when prices
are up and weakest when prices are down
and act accordingly; whereas those who
know base their actions on firm truth that
the market Is never so weak as when it is
high, and never so strong as when it is low :
being in fact like that ancient wrestler who.
Whenever forced down by his antagonist so
that his body touched the ground, immedi-
ately received from mother earth a redouble
allowance of strength. This also is one of
those pitfalls which an inherent vice of the
human mind continually impels spectators
70 dig for themselves, species of men tai
disease which, we fear, is beyond the aid of
physicians HENRY CLEws.