The New York herald., 1921-01-05
An Investment
Message

K 4 Ills Ii our lllJil cllOIJ W Stt
this message to those who are
$50 fortunate ais 20 have ready
money to invest at this time:
Perhaps n ever again will
i there be such bargains in
I investment securities as
the market now offers, and
/ SO we say to all, and this
! means you sCTape together
all the money you can get
! without borrowing and buy
: investment securities-and
! buy them now"
This letter is directed both
to those who have already
written us and those who have
snot.
! You do not get the full bene-
fit of the advice of an invest
sment house if you tell them
you will only invest in some
certain type of security or will
not invest in some other type.
when you 90 to a physician
You don't tell him what medi-
cine he should give you before
youN tell him youl symptoms.
when you go to a lawyer you
Don't tell him that you want a
&lFit brought in the Federal
Inurt before Won Tell him what
ahe case is. Perhaps you
4hould not bring suit at all.
hrhaps the Federal Court is
mot the best court, and perhaps
you could not get into it if it
;was. You 90 to your doctor and
your lawyer for advice, and 40
mot cultail their usefulness to
sou by telling them in advance
what medicine you will or will
not take or that the lawyer
must sue and sue in a certain,
;ceurt. Go to your investment
adviser in the same way as you
20 to youl physician or your
attorney. Tell him your situa-
tion; how much money you
have to invest; what you fancy
and what you have fears about.
-:We are getting lots of in
Nliries. Many that come in by
letter contain specific instruc-
: tions; sometimes they say: |
want railroad bond maturing
in 1850 and yielding 6 to 8 per
cent We give and discuss two
fire q ent examples. Space
would not permit discussing
them all for they are so nu-
merous and varied.
One man says, Il want only securi-
ties listed on the New York Stock Ex-
change" Another says, Il will never
again buy anything that is listed on the
New York Stock Exchange" One
says, II will only buy railroad securi-
ties. y" Another says, Il will never
again buy railroad securities"
4 First, you cannot make security
sound simply by listing it on the New
. Ferk Stock Exchange. You cannot
keep disaster from overtaking some en-
terprise simply by having it listed on the
hH,ch Exchange. On the other hand,
~ cannot hurt the intrinsic merit Of a
,ecurity simply because it is listed on
he New York Stock Exchange The
,y5tock Exchange strives to prevent the
! listing of fraudulent stocks on the
, Exchange and strives to prevent them
from being dealt in unfairly or fraudu-
lehtly. Generally speaking, there is no
i benefit or no injury to security by
J being listed on the New York Stock
I Exchange, except to make a market
for it. AS rule, the securities listed
Y on the Exchange have the readiest
. market. However, simply listing a
security on the New York Stock Ex-
, change will not give it ready market;
. simply because security is listed does
s.-ssot mean that it has ready market
If anyone buys a security in the belief
-tf1at because it is listed on the New
!, York Stock Exchange 1T is bound to
! have ready market they are liable to
: be badly disappointed. There are
, hundreds of inactive securities that are
4, listed, many of them being Just about
/, as easy to market at times as second
hand automobile. There are other
securities that are not listed which have
ready market at all times. Many of
the most profitable investments that
were ever made were in unlisted Sc
curities that were afterward listed on
the New York Stock Exchange after
al the cream had been skinned off.
Now as to railroad securities. So
many people know about these that
they have always sold on a less adj
Eantageous basis to the buyer than
any other class of securities. While
Sdpst other investment securities are
Still selling at approximately their
lowest point .thisls not true of railroad
. ..securities. TheyNhave had an active
ssrlsrket for weeks and have been bought
in, our opinion largely for speculation
to be resold again rather than for in
vestment. While many of them are
bargains, few of them are "best" bar
--gains. The cream has been partially
skinned off.
Sd'On the other hand, to refuse to buy
any OF these at any time is to pass up
u the likelihood of good bargains. For
the present bargains are so plentiful
that you don't have to buy railroad
securities.
I. To select good investments requires
the ability to foresee future conditions.