The sun., 1910-02-06

tions OF business and acquire early in
I formation which affects the value Of secur-
tiles. From their familiarity with the
technique OF dealings on the exchange and
ability to act in concert with others and
thus manipulate values, they are sup
posed to have special advantages over
other Traders
/ 1t is the opinion OF about every one with
Wall Street experience that the Hughes
commission erred in this analysis. The
floor trader doesn't study the general
conditions OF business" He studies quo
tations for stocks and bonds. He doesn't
know or doesn't care about the intrinsic
value OF a security; its market value is his
! concern.
1t is Of no interest to him that railroad
president is building up his company. but
IL a railroad president is buying the stock
| OF his company the floor trader viii pay
high for the information. A company
may be amassing a big surplus; what of it,
the insiders are not buying the stock.
A company may be pointed straight
toward the hands of receivers; it makes
no difference IL the insiders are not selling
the stock
Equities in stooks,- one of them said
scornfully. What do I care about themr
My business is to deal in fluctuations"
| But in regard TO the ebb and flow of
market prices no one compares with the
experienced floor trader in judgment Of
the markets swings. He studies what
Wall Street calls the technical position Of
the market; strives to learn, for instance,
when a bull pool is getting weak. when
wealthy men have distributed their hold
ings among outside spectators. when the
customers of brokerage Offices are pyra-
miding profits or trading on thin margins
or when powerful banking interests have
withdrawn supporting orders.
GREAT AIERTNEss REQUIRED.
If conditions like these exist the floor
trader sells the market sggressively in
the hope of dislodging weakly held stocks
II opposite conditions prevail he buys
them just as confidently.
There is no sentiment in his trade. He
is bull or a bear according to the occa-
sion. except that he is more often beaTish
for the reason that it is cheaper to sell
stocks short than to buy and carry them
The trader short Of the market escapes
the compound interest charges which must
be borne by him who is long.
In the execution OF buying and selling
orders no broker on all the exchanges
in the world is as proficient as the ten or
a dozen most experienced and aggressive
floor traders on the New York board.
In every one OF these men the sense OF
sound is abnormally and most keenly
developed. Their business almost in
variably is in the crowds around the posts
where business is most active, where.
- l. -
simultaneously in loud and clamorous
bidding.
To distinguish voices is almost as neces-
saEy to the experienced floor trader as to
distinguish faces. 1t is said of the best
floor traders that in keenness and alert
ness OF hearing they excel those expert
telegraph operators who distinguish the
man at the other end OF the wire by the
sound OF the key.
In mental arithmetic these expert
brokers are also remarkable. II stocks
are to be bought and sold with the utmost
rapidty no time can be spared in making
notes of every purchase and sale. The
trader must rely on his memory to carry
the amount and price OF the stock sold
to one broker. the amount and price OF
that bought from another. and so on
through several trades.
FEATs OF MEMORY.
Moreover, and more difficult still, he
must calculate instantaneousIy the stand
ing OF his accounts as he goes along from
one trade to another and the complexity
OF these accounts may be such as would
bother an experienced clerk. He may,
for instance have begun with I 900 shares
bought at 90 and heard instantly and taken
a bid for 800 shares at aO3s. Following
sales and purchases may have been at
fractional advances and fractional losses
until hull in the trading gave time to jot
down the transactions in the notebook,
All this time the trader must be certain
OF the amounts and names on his CON-
tracts and carry in his head his gains or
losses.
1t is related OF Joseph j. Manning, by
general consent the most proficient and
venturesome Of all the dozen experts,
that he can go into a crowd, execute as
many as twenty trades as rapidly as the
voice can utter them and lot them down
subsequently in the order in which they
were made and as accurately as II a
stenographer had taken notes of them.
Jacob Field, i. N. Spiegelberg, Harry
Content and half a dozen others are also
expert in this line.
Very likely men who have mastered
any memory system could do as well
in parlOr practice. but it is to be remem-
bered that the mental arithmetic OF the
floor trader is only needed and Ia only
brought into play in times Of intense
exciteGaent, when the mind is naturally
occupied with many other things. That
a mistake may mean the loss OF thousands
is also to be considered.
In no known instance has any contract
OF an expert floor trader been repudi-
ated on account OF an error by one OF
them. Their sheets go through the
Clearing House as cleanly as the sheets
Of the brokers who painstakingiy lot
down every contract the instant IL il
made. A word or even a nod from any
Of them and the trade is closed. Com
parsons after the market are merely
a matter OF form.
The expert floor trader is ordinarily
content with small profits. In normally