The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-10-09
Fluctuations Of the Grain Market
Fortunes 10 Manu- PEOPLE,
How TRADING Is Done al the Great Wheat CenEerS- The
CHICAGO Board Of Trade, the 81. Louis Merchants
EXCHANGE the New York Produce Exchange.

fights against hunger and cold. SPECS
ulation meant seeking fortune in a
we'll lighted, well heated room I'm the
heart OF civilization. To be sure the
risk Of health and comfort on the one
hand might be balanced by the risk
OF fortune on the other. but il is the
popularity of the man who CANDLES
that he seldom considers the possibili-
ties Of losses.
So speculation has grown, and COM
mission men on the exchanges have
waxed fat.
There are several classes of traders
on the exchanges. There is the big
speculatoT who trades i'm grain by the
million bushels. who uses a half dozen
brokers and buying through some. SELL
ing through others for the purpose OF
making a price. Sometimes he sells
| hundred thousand bushels openly,
while through his brokers he buys a
| million. He figures on a purely specu-
| lative profit. He is "A gambler whose
| game is made legitimate by law. 1t is
| a game forbidden in Germany and ef-
| forts have been made to persuade con-
| gress TO forbid 1t in the United States.
Then there is the broker who takes
commissions from spectators to buy
4
make a turn" i'm the market for HIM
| self. He covers his losses with the
| commissions he receives from other
| men and adds his commissions TO his
profits. Some brokers never speculate
| for themselves. They do only a COM
mission business and take no risk OF
| loss. Almost every broker starts in
| business with the intention of confining
| himself to commission trading, but few
resist the temptation TO speculate.
| There are exporters on the exchanges
who buy for future delivery and sell
| abroad at the same time There are
milers who have made contracts for
| the sale OF -four at an agreed price for
future delivery who protect themselves
| by buying wheat futures. And there
| are the lambs, who know little or moth
ing about the conditions which govern
the grain market. who have come on
the exchange to trade in the hope Of
! winning a fortune. 1t is the lamb who
! oils the wheels OF trade on the grain
exchanges. The lamb has been sadly
lacking Of recent years, but he is com
ing TO the shearing again. In every big
center men who read of the fortunes
made by spectators in grain are put
ting in cautious order to buy or sell
I
future delivery. If the market goes
their way, they buy or sell more TO in
crease their profits. If it goes against
them, they buy or sell more to strike
an average" In case the market should
turn.
Speculation in grain involves great
many interests, and the speculative ma
chine is costly. AS / have said, the eX-
/ changes are connected by network of
telegraph wires, and these wires are
! used as freely as q local telephone. Not
only orders TO buy and sell, but news
/ of all kinds which might affect the
value OF grain is sent over the wires.
| The ordinary slow process Of sending
! and receiving a message is not used.
/ When broker on one of the exchanges
| wants ia send message TO broker on
! the other, he writes il out on any scrap
/ Of paper that is handy, abbreviatlng
\ many of his words and scrawling in
/ reckless way. He slaps the piece OF
paper down on the telegraph desk be-
/ side the wheat pit" or slips ii into the
I hand OF one of the many messengers
/ who stand ready for service AS quick
/ Nv as the manager of the office can get
his fingers on IT, he tosses II TO the
| desk OF one OF the telegraph operators,
who seizes IL and begins 10 send it at his