Part 5

The Street itself has been the center of finance of this country for nearly a hundred years, when the New York Stock Exchange was established.

Here are offices of the greatest and wealthiest financiers the world has ever known.

It is the greatest speculative center in this or any other country.

Here are found the men who create and handle railroads and the largest industrial enterprises in the world.

In the Exchange millions of dollars' worth of stocks and bonds are bought and sold every day.

Here are found hundreds of banks, trust and safe deposit institutions, private bankers and capitalists, a money center which controls seven-tenths of all the money in America.

In Wall Street you may buy or sell one or more shares of the stock of any great railway or industrial company in the country.

Here is where all important enterprises are financed, and where the public sends enormous sums of money to be invested for speculative gain.

INVESTORS.

Those who come into the market and purchase securities for the purpose of holding them as safe investments for their money, securing an interest or dividend income thereon.

SPECULATORS.

Those who buy and sell upon margins for quick profits. They are non-producers. They are simply gamblers, with the odds badly against them. They sometimes prosper for a while, but lose their money in the end.

INVESTMENT SPECULATORS.

Those who buy stocks judiciously, selecting choice securities whose value is well known, buying when values are depressed, and selling when sufficient advance occurs to give them a good profit. This they repeat over and over again, and make money while the speculator on margin loses. It is to this class that we appeal.

"A BULL."

A speculator who buys expecting to sell at a higher price. He is called "long" on the market, meaning that he is buying with the expectation that the market will go up and that he will sell out at a profit. His belief not only is that prices are going higher, but he uses all his influence in every possible effort to make them go higher.

"A BEAR."

A speculator who sells in the expectation of a decline. He is called "short" of the market. He is selling what he has not got. He does this in the expectation that prices are going down, and that he will be able to buy the stocks at a lower price than that he has to pay for them, and by delivering them at the price at which he sold to make his profit. He puts up his margin and takes his risk. As an illustration of what a "bear" is and does, suppose you believed that in a week's time corn would go down in price; therefore, you sell and promise to deliver so many bushels of corn at a certain price. If corn does go down, and you can buy it at a lower price than that at which you sold, you are a winner. If it disappoints you, and it goes up, you have to deliver it anyway, and are out of pocket.

"A LAMB."

A man who thinks he knows all about the Wall Street game, and bases this belief on the fact that he keeps abreast with the times, reads all the financial columns in the newspapers, wades through all the Wall Street papers and watches the ticker faithfully and conscientiously. When he is sure he knows all about it he goes jauntily down into the Street, and soon discovers that he knows nothing about it at all. He finds this out just at the moment when all his money is gone.

"A FLYER."

A flyer is a more or less reckless gamble, which pretty nearly everybody feels strongly inclined to make once in a while. When a flyer turns out right it is a very profitable thing, but the trouble with it is that it rarely turns out right or anywhere near it.

"A BREAK."

A rapid decline in prices of stock.

"A BULGE."

A quick upward movement in prices of stock.

"FLAT."

Stock loaned by one broker to another without interest is loaned "flat."