Omaha daily bee., 1910-02-06

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 rapidity
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 -instantaneously the standing Of
his accounts as he goes along from one
trade to another and the completely of
these accounts may be such as would
bother an experienced clerk. lie may have,
for instance, begun with 1000 shares bought
at 90 and heard instantly and taken a bid
for 500 shares at 9Oh. Following sales and
purchases may have been at fractional ad-
vances and fractional losses until a lull I'm
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 Of his contracts and carry in
his head his gains Of 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 Jot them down sub
sequently In the same order in which
they were made and as accurately as II
a stenographer had taken notes of them.
Jacob Field, 1. N. Spielberg, Harry Con-
tent and half a dozen others are also ex-
pert in this line.
Very likely men who have mastered any
memory system could do as well in parlor
practice, but 1t is to be m that
the mental arithmetic Of the floor trader
Is only needed and is only brought into
play in times Of intense excitement when
the mind is naturally occupied with many
other things. That q mistake may mean
the loss of thousands is also to be consid-
cred.
In no known instance has any contract
OF an expert floor trader been repudiated
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
painstakingly Jot down every contract the
instant 1t is made. A word or even a
nod from any of them and the trade is
closed. Comparisons after the market are
merely a matter of form.
Tn expert floor trader is ordinarily con-
tent with small profits. In m quiet
markets an eight or a quarter Of a point
a share is ordinarily taken. He knows that
a profit in stocks isn't a real cash profit
until the stocks that have been bought
have been sold, which is the thing that
brokers find hardest to teach customers
The PAPER profit has a way of disappear-
ing while the trader waits for more profit.
The floor trader goes In quickly and gets
out almost as quickly.
Profit of 81 on 81 900 shares.
one OF MS pet aversions is against leav-
ing contracts outstanding over night. That
no man knows what the morrow may bring
forth is one Of his cardinal principles. HIS
contracts are heavy and the risk of an
opening of the market far apart from the
previous close is one he does not care IN
take. Something like the San Francisco
earthquake might happen and the market
open far off the previous close. Or II
might be announced that Washington had
discontinued all anti-corporation proceed
ings and policies and stocks might soar
to the skies.
Ordinarily, accordingly, the floor trader
AAo hAAih net commitments IN
the course of every stock exchange session
But in the course of that session he NAV
have done 10000 or $1,000 shares and nor
considered the day unusually exciting n
is said OF Jacob Field that he once traded
In about 5000 shares of stock In one dav
at a net difference of but SO when the dav
was over.
Ihough the floor trader is most active
IN active stocks, his trading is most con-
splcuous on those days when the market
Is dull On a dull day in m~id-summer
when the big men of Wall street the
wealthy Spectators and most Of the GUS
toners OF the commission houses are swav
the floor trader remains.
others may not care for the market. He
couldn't resist its fascination IL he would
and on many such days trades between
the professionals supply much more than
hAlI OF the business. 1t is of markets such
as TINS that the elder Housman was used
70 remark with a magnificent flourish OF
the hand:
Inc croupiers make the play"
Didn't Gamble In BaIzac,
Inc study OF market conditions is all alb
soroing to the expert professional. Most
OF them are busted with obtaining infor-
mation on the attitude of various finan-
LOIS ""u OUTSIDE operators in all their
waking hours while the exchange Is closed
Some of them do little or nothing else
Wall street attaches the following story
to one Of them as illustrating the general
disposition:
Much against his will, the broker was
dragged to a dinner party where women
were present and the conversation was on
general topics. The dinner companion NJ
the broker tried to draw him out on one
topic after another, but without success
His mind was on the market. AS a last
resort she brought up books.
"Oh, Mr.. Blank" she said. lyon like
Balzac, 1 suppose?"
L don't know anything about it," was
the reply. Il never do anything, madam
In those curb stocks"
They Serve a Purpose,
AS was noted in the beginning. the aver
age customer Of the commission houses
has no great regard for the professional
His broker Is partly to blame, for the
broker who has unwisely advised pur-
chases Of stocks generally has a pro
fessional raid" for his excuse when the
advice turns out wrong.
Suspicious dabblers at stocks also recall
that the professionals were characterized
as hell hounds of the system when Law