The sun., 1902-11-02
BUCKET SHOPS ON new LINES
NDICiTES Bifk THEN tND
iRE StID TO MAKE MONEY.
As Many as FIFTY May ne In One tombina.
tiOn--Fewer 80 BrOke-t'us Omers
Lose just the same. Though
England Is Their Best Patron.

tape through his fingers, said, well. so
long" To the manager of the customers
room and went out.
See that man that was just here at the
ticker" said the A,chison bull to the
Atchison bear
Didn't notice him particularly said the
Atchison bear
That's Mr.. John-three-eights a quarter
for Atch-Doe. John Doe of Boston. He's
been down here wiping out the biggest
bucket shop sheet that was ever written
in New England. I'm told that on this
break in the market he's taken a clean
million
IN eighth for Atchison.- said the Atch-
son bear, who didn't appear to be much
interested either in John Doe of Boston or
his big bucket shop sheet.
A non-professional trader who over
heard the conversation felt his curiosity
rising and began to make inquiries. He
learned without going very far for the in
formation that the bucket shop business
has undergone some interesting changes
in recent years.
II is no longer conducted along the old
haphazard lines. The survivors Of the
old regime have formed themselves into
groups, or combinations to back the game,
as a gambler would call IL.
They establish headquarters somewhere.
either in Boston or New York as rule.
and from there direct the business Of ten.
twenty or fifty public Offices. The COM
bination's headquarters Office in strictly
private. 1t is the business Of the COM
bination to provide quotations. telegraph
wires. &c. and to be responsible for the
trades that are made in their publicofflces.
In Providence, r. l.. Office. for example.
a Gust omer wants TO buy fifty shares OF Mis-
souri, Pacific. The manager Of that Office
wires to the combinations private head
quarters at New York
BUY fifty Missouri Pacific no"
At headquarters they enter the trade on
the sheet and report back: Bought fifty
Missouri Pacific no" There has been no
trade, Of course, but nine times put OF ten
the client doesn't know that.
In the course of bufi market when the
fever Of speculation is abroad, combina-
tion backing twenty or more bucket shops
through the country gets a tremendous
sheet on its hands. The bucket shop, 1t
must be understood, is always short OF its
customers trades.
The people who trade in bucket shops
the market. That's why the bucket shops
make their money In a declining market.
A sharp slump is their especial delight.
1t wipes their clients out.
In the old days when the bucket shops
could be started on the merest shoestring
Of a capital, a rising market was invariably
attended with failures. There are fewer
failures now because the combinations OF
syndicates that back most Of the bucket
shops are very rich. Some OF them have
available capital Of from 81 100000 to s.
600 600
The strongest combination in the busin ess
has its headquarters In Boston. II has be-
tween thirty and forty private wires con-
stantly going.
said that John Doe Of Boston had been wip-
ing out a sheet was this: When bull mar
ket ends, az all bull markets do sooner or
later, and prices begin TO fall tho head OF
a bucket shop combination looks over his
sheet and finds. say, that fifty OF his Gus
TONERS are long Of Missouri Pacific at prices
ranging from l05 10 10 and that their mar
gins average per cent.
He calculates that Missouri Pacific must
decline to certain price. perhae, lO5
TO wipe out these clients He goes to Wall
Street and consults his broker. At the
psychological moment they go into the
market and raid Missouri Pacific, Offering
il down until the price Of l05 is established
The stock may rally in the next five minutes
TO lO7 or 10, but that doesn't matter. This
particular bucket shop clientele has been
wiped out of its Missouri Pacific.
Such raids are usually favored by n
bearsh temper in Wall Street. The bucket
shop man. with great deal of ready money
AT his command, engages the best brokerage
talent he can find in Wall Street. He
figures, Of course as a private customer.
and there l. no law of the Stock Exchange
that can Isrvent his doing Just what has
been described.
The New York Stock Exchange author
tiles have been trying for years to keep
quotations out Of the hands of the bucket
shop people, but the bucket shops get
them. The telegraph companies find il
we'll worth their while to cater TO an element
that pays more than half a million dollars
a year for leased wires.
II is said. as great many other things
are said, in Wall Street and cannot be
proved, that the bucket shops get guar
antees that their quotations shall be quicker
than those served to the general stock
market public. This Is very important
matter for the bucket shops
II the quotations served to them were
five or ten minutes stale they would be-
come the prey of sharp-witted profess sional
traders in Wall Street. They have enough
trouble with the Wall Street sharps a. it is
There's going To be something doing in
y. Y. said one trader TO another. Il
can't Just make out what il will do to the
ment. You 20 over to W. f. Bucket q
Co s and buy 100 shares on two points
margin and I'll come after you and sell
a hundred on two points.
The stock moved 20 points within two
weeks Such little games as this are fire.
quently put up against bucket shops. Wise
as the bucket shop people are they fire.
quently suffer at the hands of professional
Wall Street sharps.
In the palmy days of bucket shopping
in Wall Street queer things sometimes
happened Pretentious establishments would
be deserted over night by their owners.
!, used To be common TO find around Wall
Street dusty suite, Of offices furnished with
tickers. blackboards, desks. customers
chairs and all the rest, They were simply
deserted, With not even a sign to tell what
had become Of the proprietors and
their clients. They would stand thus
until rent fell due, whereupon the manager
of the building would get what they could
for the furniture, &c, and call 1t quits
A young advCniurcr once found such a
place He had not 80 much as S. capital,
but he represented to the managers Of the
building that he had taken the plant over
from its vanished owners and opened up
for business.
The first customer who happened along
bought ten shares of stock on one point
margin-slO. The stock advanced one
point in the next ten minutes and the man
wanted his money.
This was a poser for the new proprietor
All the money he had In the world was
this mans $40 He confessed the situa-
tiOn frankly and said: