The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-02-16
PLACE OCCUPIED
BY PROFESSIONALS
JUDGED IN LIGHT OF THEIR
PRESENT ACTIVITY IN
WALL STREET.

NEW YORK. Feb. 1a.--It requires
three things to make stock mar
ket: money. general conditions and
men. The first two bear the closes,
kind of relationship to one another
but that relationship is constantly va
rying IN degree, and it requires the
third to gauge and measure 1t from
day to day. Stock market varia-
tons represent the measurements
that are made. and. hullish as prevail
ing conditions may be. or hearish,
prices vary as those conditions affect
mems minds and induce orders to
flow to the stock exchange.
Thus it happens that when stocks
are bought, and prices advance, the
relationship between stocks and pre-
vaiiing conditions is recognized to be
of pleasant nature. Conversely. when
stocks are sold. and prices fall. the
relationship Is recognized as unpleas-
ant. 1t takes a variety OF men to
make a market. and when the ma
Jority are operating together. the de-
gree of relationship between stocks
and conditions cannot be misunder-
stood. There are bankers. investors.
SPECTATORS. professionals. manipula-
tors talthough stock exchange offic-
ials now deny this), lambs insiders,
ers. room traders. specialists. cliques.
pools and synicates. The majority of
these operating together. naturally
will sway prices on the market in
one or the other direction.
But 1t is manifestly impossible for
all to operate as single unit The
differences of opinion which always
exist insure that an entire body of
spectators and investors cannot OPP
crate together at one time either on
the bull or bear side. So we have it
now that. while certain groups In
the stock market are buying stocks,
at least one group--the professional
traders--are supplying them freely.
Professional selling has proceeded at
an active pace since before the crest
of the January rise, and it has acted
as a distinct check against the bull
ishness which developed during last
months Wall Street rise. That it
should be the professionals who sold
the market in face of all the favor
able developments which have de-
veloped would seem strange. were It
not for the peculiar characteristics of
these particular traders. These gen
tlemen contribute from a third to "A
half OF a days total stock market
business. On an active day they bang
StockS around IN startling tashlOn !.
on a dull day they move warily and
with due respect to signs. Thus Il
Is that they trade and secure an in
come by telling from the feel of the
market whether 1t Is inclined to move
in one direction or the other
This would seem. on general princi-
pies. to be a precarious means of live
lihood. 1t is. yet the presence of GER
tain men on the floor OF the Exchange
who are professionals. and who were
professionals ten and fifteen years ago.
makes it plain that such traders sur
vive and prosper. There is an under
standing that successful professional
traders go with the market, buying
freely when stocks are rising and sell =
ing on large scale when they are on
the downward course. That would Ger
tainly be the obvious pathway o~suc-
cess, providing stocks continue strong
after they are bought and weak after
they are sold. There are professionals
who succeed by beating fluctuations In
this way, scalping profits on declines
and advances. But If there are any
who have prospered greatly because OF
ton to another, they represent small
"A very small-minority of the traders
Those professionals who "even up
their accounts regularly before three
o'clock, and go home without position
either on the long short side often
make neat profits. but they do not
make fortunes by that process
Those who have prospered have done