The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-13
HOW INSIDE TIPS
 INFLUENCE MARKET PeSsimism in Financial District
 is Now a Disease MORGAN POSTPONES TRIP interesting Report Going the Rounds Concerning Combination Behind
 Northern Pacific, Burlington
 and Great Northern.
MORGAN POSTPONES TRIP
BY W. G. NICHOLAS.

BY w. G. NICHOLAS.
 New York. April 12.-speculative tips" on stocks are full of danger, yet it is probably true that two-tl1irds of the cur rent deals on the exchange have their in- spiration from that source. A story is started that an insider has given friend advice to buy or sell certain stock and this word flies through the offices and across the floor of the exchange on the
 wings of the wind. It circulates by a sort of telepathic process and becomes current in an incredibly brief period of time. Great numbers of transactions are predicated thereon and the market is more or less Influenced, for the time being Yet in nine cases out of ten the tips" are either groundless or are set going for the purpose of deception Money would be made very much oftener by "coppering' them, as they have 1t in tIe market vernacular, than in accepting them as having affirmative value. Expe- rienced brokers and traders have learned to look with merited suspicion on any and every tip they hear and when they act at all they are much more likely to take the other end of 1t, although the multi tude continues to place confidence In the information which they believe to be in- spired and which they can hear in every cafe and office in the Wall street vicinity.
 The manipulation of Amalgamated cop per is invariably accompanied by con tinued distribution of tips. For time these tips are borne out by the course of the market and as confidence in them grows, increasing amounts of money pour into the street to back them. It is then that the manipulators get in their work. If the accumulation of small orders is to buy for further advance the insiders proceed to liquidate and take profits on stock bought lower down. If the tip be to sell for a further decline then the pool brokers begin their process of absorption of stocks. The result is always the same the lambs get sheared and the market jugglers get away with the wool All through its long and painful decline United States steel has been tipped for an advance. There has been a larger and harder worked advertising bureau at tached to the steel trust than any other corporation. Bull or bear campaigns in sugar stocks are always accompanied by the energetic circulation of inspired tips
 NHiNll III AllN SnQ RibNN illNdiidbi9 inlS- leading.
 Pessimism in the financial district of New York has been a disease this year. Apparently nothing can check it and it has had to run it's course. There are evidences that the street is still sick.
 The shrnkage in securities has been enormous and 1t would seem to have been sufficient to have discounted all unfavor- able conditions urged in support of the bearish campaign. Wall street has been the only blue spot in the entire country. There no news has attracted the slightest attention for months except bear news. The tremendous activity in every branch of business and industry throughout the length and breadth of the land has been ignored and the only thing heard has been embarrassment in the securities market, due to the over production of stocks and bonds and the troubles of the under
 writers who see their paper profits of two or three previous years disappearing. There has been a great ado over the al- legged scarcity of money although as a matter of fact there is more money in the country than ever before-the increase since last April having been more than $lOO O0,OOO, and that on top of a previous six years increase of $70O COG, ,0O0
 To hear the bears and pessimsts talk about the inadequate supply of money with which to absorb securities ohe would think that money invested in that form
 was forever lost, instead of it being sim ply a medium of transfer and to be ever in condition for unemployment in the
 same way. The volume of money in cir culation in the United States is approxi-
 mately $29OO, 0OOO0O. The market value of 1 stocks and bonds in the hands of in-
 vestors has been estimated approximate | ly at $50 GOO, 900 900. These securities have | at one time or another been bought with | money yet the volume of money is great | CT than ever before Money used for | the purchase of stocks or for employment | In any business transaction has been l likened to dipping out a paiful of water from reservoir and pouring 1t back into l the same reservoir through a sieve It is | merely medium of exchange and 1t is as liquid as the water which inspired the 1 illustration just given There is money enough to take care of all the securities 1 that have been made. whether digested or 1 undigested. The only question is that of 1 the price at which investors want then, At the present time and for several
 months back there has been an jndisnosi- | ton on the part of investors to take the l goods at the value put upon them by | the manufacturers. On the great decline WHICH nds ldheH pidC6 Ilere has bpan | resumption of investment activity. a1- I though 1t is not reflected as vet In tbo I speculative operations on the exchanges | That will come later when the new crons get fairly started and the whole face of l nature smiles with promise of abundance It Is the habit of many speculators q | majority of them in fact to put in ..ston- loss" orders 10 protect themselves against
 the temptation to carry their deals to Il
 loss beyond d certain fixed figure ,rhia appears on the surface to be a very wise procedure, but as a matter of fact if is
 oftentimes just the reverse. The big com
 mission houses turn these stop-loss orders
 over to specialists In the several stocks and as'the market continues to decline ar advance these specialists become loaded
 up with orders of that description and be- gin to compare notes. The result Is The discovery that at certain figure a great
 mass of stock will be offered for sale or purchased, as the case may be. This in formation Is communicated on the ouiot to the professionals and floor traders who at once prepare to take advantage of the execution of these orders. As the market approaches the figure these crafty market hawks exert themselves to force the stock l f-AT arlIW