The Cairo bulletin., 1904-12-13
Wall Street

Inc loitoMlaG Interesting Resume
Of tie 'frcnzied' declines in stocks
in Ne8 Iork tie past Two or tArse
weeks and particularly ne past
week i from the New Yor.. Times
Of Sanllv:
Whenever Wall stree. IS confront
ed with a sud len rise or sudden
drop in the price of tae securities "a
which il is interested il makes an
attempt 10 explain the situation. and
IN doing This il passes over the teeth
nical conditions OF the market which
made the movement in either direc
ton possible This disregard of tech
|nical conditions in attempting to ar
rive at d plausible explanation Is not
so much due TO wilfnlness as TO the
fact that the technical conditions are
selieYident The Wall street com
munity knows perfectly wei that
when the stock market has been
oyerhoueht thar is when q speech a.
tive structure has been reared on
advancing prices, the structure gets
weakes as i; nears the top. because
e becomes honeyeombed with weak
ly margined accounts. accounts built
up on unsecured profits, and stop loss
orders made 10 protect such ac
counts. But II also knows that this
structure can go ON. if nor indefinite.
ly at least for months, reaching high
er and higher unless some outside
event. some financial windstorm.
should come along and upset the bal |
ance of the swaying structure. The |
cause, therefore, which Wall street !
looks for is that which may be an ac-
cident, court decision npsetting |
a presidents message, or
a hundred other things. II may be a
deliberate blow aimed by someone
more ready. more quick OF sight in
detecting the psychological mo
ment when the market was ready TO
Yield.
In the break last week this out
side factor was Thomas w Lawson
# Boston While the excitement of
and Thursday was at its
1eight, every small Spectator whose
Profits and principal had been wiped
,ut blamed the Boston man for what
be considered a nefarious attack on
ialues But VIII order was once
more restored, when after the storm
{ was found That stock market YAK
les were about whore they had been
Z little over a week ago, the sold-out
ipeculator and the street in general 4
stopped 10 consider if X was Lawson
ana only Lawson VINO had done thi.
hing. The street begin to work its
memory and this IS what il remem,
lered
1t was the day before Thanksgiv. |
ng when Lawson made public his
Thanksgiving Prayer" In that I,
memorable and remarkable dociI |
nent he declared that Wall street
lad umored that he was loaded up
With 100000 shares of Amalgamated
100000 shares OF sugar, and 10000 |
hares of Pacific Mail, and that he
would be forced to liquidate If, this
T spelled with capitals, he should
ind that this report was true. theI
he would on Friday after Thanksgiv
ng throw over these holdings at ex
lctly II o'clock, and would Wall
street. please help him to get as good
,rices as possible? Wall street read
his advertisement with astonish
nent 1t had heard nothing of such
/ report-in fact, it said boldly that
uch report never was circulated
md must therefore have been invent
I'd purposely for the use in the ad
-crtisement.
But there were. many spectators
md even brokers, not ordinarily easy
o deceive, who watched the hour o.
q approach with some apprehen
lion There was considerable selling
If the stocks mentioned. and they
howed the effect of the selling by
'-point declines. but the hour pass
"a, and. although up TO the very last
minute before the clock struck Law
'on had kept the nerves Of the ner
'ous on the jump by startling tele
trans and flashes of warning, and Of