New-York tribune., 1908-08-21
COTTON OFF s. A BALE
LITERMORE POOL ROUTED.
Bad to Haze Lost Half MiIIion Dol
lars an Days Transactions.

The local cotton market yesterday was the scene
OF wild excitement when the bears succeeded in
hammering the price of the October option down
60 points, or 50 a bale. The bull pool headed by
J. L LverTnoTe the latest cotton king was full
retreat and was reported to have sold not less
than 10000 bales during the day at loss from
8 to g q bale. OF. this amount Mr.. Livermore
was credited with $1,000 bales
According to current gossip the Cotton Ex-
change, Mr.. Livermore is long 10000 bales of
October cotton. This would make his paper loss,
on the basis of yesterdays decline In that option,
100000. His actual loss. figured the amount Of
cotton said TO have been nQuidated by him.
probably about $4,000. The other members of the
pool are understood 10 be Theodore II. Price and
Joseph A Patten. the Chicago operator Their
combined losses for the day, according to Wall
Street estimates. $4,000. making the total
losses OF the bull pool on the days transactions
about s59o.On0.
The market opened easier at decline of to Is
points, but reports of general rains the cotton
belt, which practically removed any apprehension
August droutIl damage, aided the bears in their
attack The bulls on their part appeared to be
dsheartened by the good weather and poor trade
reports. and did not offer any serious resistance
to the efforts of the bears to reduce prices
The October option, Of which the bull clique
understood be long 10000 bales made the
point Of attack The bulls had evidently decided
that it time stand from under, for the
ket received little support from the usual bull
sources, and, in fact, II estimated by
that fully % 900 bales dumped the market
in the first ten minutes by bull houses
The decline continued to gain headway and
rapidly extended TO other options and before the
close there had been q general decline of from go
60 points August cotton, regarded practically
cash cotton. which closed on Wednesday at
1010 went down to $50, a loss of s. a bale or the
same the October option.
The weakness in the stock market yesterday was
attributed in quarters to the cotton bulls
who were said to be selling their holdings to pro-
vide funds for carrying their cotton, but whether
this was true could not of course, be learned
A member of the firm Of Z. H. Hutton &
Co., where Mr.. Livermore makes his headquar-
ters said from the reports that were in circuIa-
ton It would appear that the Street was keep
ing Mr. Iivernore's books but that matter
of fact he was keeping them himself and was not
making his transactions public, and that he did
not care whether Wall Street figured him out a
winner or a loser in the cotton market.
A friend of the young operator said that he
owned a considerable amount of cotton outright
and that II did not make any difference how much
long cotton he held, he had made enough on the
short side Of the stock market since the decline
started TO keep on buying all the cotton that was
offered II he wanted to.
Men well posted the cotton situation said that
the decline was TO have been expected, condi-
tons almost altogether bearish- The crop.
they said had been making good progress, and the
outlook was for a new record breaking yield Of
more than 100000 bales. On the other hand, they
pointed out that the trade demand had hardly ever
been lower.
The closing prices OF the most active options yes
terIay compared with Wednesdays close, were as
follows: October, $50 against SIS; August, 9.58
against 1o1e September Ss1 against s29; December,
S.61 against $50, and January, SIS against SIS