Stock ticker

“ The atmosphere of the Street was supersaturated with apprehension, and the black shadow of Panic brooded over the Stock Exchange, chilling the little gamblers’ hearts, wiping out the last of the little gamblers’ margins. And even the presidents of the solid, conservative banks studied the ticker uneasily in their offices. ”

“ There were regular daily stock-market reports in London newspapers in 1825, and New York soon followed the example. As far back as 1692, Houghton issued in London a weekly review of financial and commercial transactions, upon which Macaulay based the lively narrative of stock speculation in the seventeenth century, given in his famous history. That which the ubiquitous stock ticker has done is to give instantaneity to the news of what the stock market is doing, so that at every minute, thousands of miles apart, brokers, investors, and gamblers may learn the exact conditions. ”

“ The broker in London has therefore to perform, in a measure, the work of the ticker in New York. Perhaps I should not say they have no tickers in London. In point of fact there is such an instrument, identical with our own, which four or five times a day, at stated intervals, reels off with mechanical monotony a list of quotations in certain active securities—the same group every day. They are limited in number, almost nobody looks at them, and many really enterprising houses do not install them at all. ”

“ It does not follow that one who keeps in touch with the stock market by telephone, or through the daily papers, will find his path free from thorns and snares; but he will at least have a more open perspective than one who submits to the influence of the ticker. ”

“ Every transaction of any importance is sent over the wires. It has hardly taken place before the anxious watcher at some ticker reads its record on the tape, whether it be one hundred yards from the floor of the Exchange or a thousand miles away. If he is holding any particular stock that has advanced, and wishing to take advantage of the fact, he decides to sell, he telegraphs his New York brokers to sell for him. ”

“ If you will give me a check for $35,000, leaving $3,000 with the trust company for emergencies, I shall buy some bonds which I feel reasonably certain will advance in price within a few months.”
“Ticky-ticky-ticky-tick,” interrupted the ticker. In some inexplicable way it seemed to him that the brassy sound had an ominous ring, so he added: “But you will have to let me know 10promptly, Mrs. Hunt. The stock market, you see, is not a polite institution. It waits for none, not even for your sex.” ”

“ A stock operator's one reliable source of information is his ticker and tape. For the benefit of those of my readers who are unacquainted with the paraphernalia by which stock-markets and financial operations are conducted, I would say that the ticker is a small printing machine through which passes an endless paper tape. The machine is run by telegraph wires, and it prints upon the tape letters and figures which are abbreviations of the names and prices of all the stocks and commodities dealt in on the stock-exchanges and boards of trade throughout the world. ”

“ The holder of securities listed on the Stock Exchange is quite differently situated. He is altogether independent. He knows the price of his holdings every hour of the day. He is exposed to no fraud, and at the mercy of no rumor and no unscrupulous dealer. He has positive assurance that in case of necessity, at a moment’s notice, he can obtain at the prevailing price the value in cash of every Stock Exchange security in his box. The ticker gives him instantaneous quotations. ”

“ Get stuff that you can put in the green box in the safety deposit vault and not have to worry about.
The stockbroker has a lot of unwritten history about the business man who divides his energies between his office and the ticker. The business man who is trying to make more progress than his competitor in business and at the same time trying to beat out the stock market is dividing his energies, and between the two occupations he is likely to fail. Be a generalist in pleasure and recreation, but not in business. ”

“ Publicity, as we are learning in the New York Stock Exchange, is a prime requisite of the business, and the advantages that thus accrue through the use of the ticker and the published summary of each transaction in the day’s work cannot be overestimated in its importance to the public and to the banks. In London, where a jobber may buy or sell large quantities of securities, the business is done quietly. ”

“ I don't think they could get control, but they could garner a plurality from stock outstanding on the planets. Most of the preferred stock is in the possession of the folks out here, you know, but aside from yourself, Walt, and a couple dozen of the executive personnel, the stock is spread pretty thin. The common stock has a lot of itself running around loose outside. Look!"
Cartwright began to run off the many yards of ticker tape. "Here, some guy dumped a boatload at Canalopsis, and some other guy glommed onto a large hunk at New York. ”

“ In other words, when prosperity is beginning to revive after a prolonged stagnation, and the prices of stocks are very low, the bull speculator’s great chance occurs. When the great industries of a nation seem to rise as from the grave, and where lifelessness and inactivity ruled before the blows of the hammer resound and the blast furnace roars, a new life springs through the arteries of the commercial system, and the result is a rise in public securities. The solid rise in the price of stocks is that caused by the hard money-buying by a public that is well to do. ”

“ Even the gray-haired wizards of Wall Street who had preached caution for two or three years, finally fell into line with the new order of things, and not only did they plunge into the market long after it had passed the point of safety, but they organized more investment trusts running into billions of dollars, and advertised far and wide for the public to buy their stock and join them in amassing fortunes. They would manage everything, and all the people had to do was to furnish the money. ”

“ Many of these so-called investment trusts accumulated thousands upon thousands of highly speculative common shares that paid less than 2% income on their market value. Indeed one day in September, 1929, a statistician figured that the twelve most active stocks on the New York Stock Exchange averaged a return of only one and three-fifths per cent. ”

“ In fine, the ultimate purpose in this regard of all the promotion machinery of Wall Street—the machinery that has been putting out billions of dollars' worth of securities to investors—is to place stock where it will "stay put," that is, not come out on the open market again to embarrass the interests that are behind the enterprise, and who for a long period are compelled to support the market. ”

“ Downward to the $3 point the stock traveled, breaking from 25 to 50 cents between sales. Through $3 and on down to the $2 point the price crashed. Blocks of 10,000 shares were madly thrown into the vortex of trading. The Curb was a struggling, screaming, maddened throng of brokers. Every trader appeared to be determined to crush the market structure. At $2 a share there was a temporary check in the decline, but the bears renewed their onslaught, gaining confidence by the outpour of selling orders. Within less than an hour after the opening the stock hit $1 1-2 a share. ”

“ From ten to three they stood before the quotation board and watched a quick-witted boy chalk the price-changes, which one or another of the customers read aloud from the tape as it came from the ticker. The higher stocks went the more numerous the customers became, being allured in great flocks to the Street by the tales of their friends, who had profited greatly by the rise. All were winning, for all were buying stocks in a bull market. ”

“ It is the Stock Exchange gambler rather than the investor, or the speculator who moves legitimately within his means, who may rejoice in the boom with its roaring business and rising prices, but who forms the real element of danger in a slump with its sudden depreciation, and who frequently turns the slump into a crisis, and eventually into a panic. ”

“ Little is heard in Wall Street these days about 'putting stocks up.'" But it was not long before irate customers began blaming their stupendous losses on advice they received from their brokers. Alec Wilder, a songwriter in New York in 1929, interviewed by Stud Terkel in "Hard Times" four decades later, described this typical exchange with his money manager: "I knew something was terribly wrong because I heard bellboys, everybody, talking about the stock market. About six weeks before the Wall Street Crash, I persuaded my mother in Rochester to let me talk to our family adviser. ”

“ They harp persistently on the fact that stocks are cheap,—not because of their dividend return, but because they are selling much below the boom prices. Their calculations are drawn mostly from figures at the big end of the measuring tape. Improved business—which exists more in the imagination than in fact—is employed as a smoke screen to hide the fact that the great majority of the active stocks are still [22] selling far above a reasonable investment basis. ”

“ If he be exposed to such a loss at any moment as that mentioned, the risk is an absurd one to run if there is not at least an equal chance of a similar rise, and several times £250 in reserve. But all experienced in Stock Exchange fluctuations know that upward movements are, as a rule, gradual, a rise of 1 per cent. being considered as a profit which a speculator should without hesitation take, while a fall all round in a market of two or three per cent. in a day is of more common occurrence. ”

“ But never before has politics hurled its javelins so fiercely against Wall Street, and that practically means all 987the Stock Exchanges in the country. The joint attack is against stock speculation, and no Stock Exchange in the world ever was or ever can be free from that. It would obviously be absolutely impossible to distinguish investment from speculative transactions on the floor of the Stock Exchange, or tell whether long or short stock was being bought and sold. ”

“ What are the further obvious deductions from the large increase of speculation in public securities thus suggested, to confine ourselves to one kind of market? If the business of the Stock markets were reduced within safe and legitimate limits, that is, was confined to operations of a bona fide investment nature, it is certain that no more than one-tenth, it might be one-twentieth, of the brokers would be required to execute properly all the orders that come into the markets. ”

“ It is so whether the purchases or sales are by investors or speculators, for speculation on the Stock Exchange is not gambling. Whether stocks, or bonds, are bought, or sold, by investors or speculators is immaterial between the contracting brokers on the floor of the Exchange. They know no difference whatever. Delivery of the stocks or bonds is made by the one, and received by the other, in every case, and payments made accordingly, at the sale and purchase prices, investment and speculative transactions being treated exactly alike. ”

“ Wise's customers, acting on his kindly advice, dumped eleven thousand two hundred shares on the floor, causing a further decline. And a timid somebody unknown became scared and decided to sell, and somebody else came to the same conclusion, and yet another somebody caught the infection of distrust; the result being that Net Common was quoted at one hundred thirteen.
Belden and Tausig, glued to the ticker's side by an invincible dismay, swore and considered ways and means by which they might “peg” the price; meaning, to fix it beyond possibility of further declines. ”

“ Business is quiet but steady. Wall Street sharpers are anticipating a boom, as it is not expected that the new administration will do anything to hurt the monopolies. The shares of those trusts listed on the New York Stock Exchange—American Cotton Oil trust and Chicago Gas trust—have advanced in price. ”

“ They instruct their brokers to offer small quantities under the market price, and to keep on offering lower and lower, until other holders of the same stock who are not in their confidence become alarmed, and sell out at the best price they can get. In the meantime the clique have other brokers buying all the stock that is offered, and thus they get possession of a large amount of stock at low prices, which they can probably sell, a few days later, at a large profit. ”

“ It is a common thing to read about the short interests in certain stocks. All stocks that are sold short must be bought sooner or later, and when that buying takes place, it may affect the market very much. Therefore, if it is known that there is a big short interest in a certain stock, we should expect the stock to sell at a higher price; but sometimes the short interests break the market and force the price down, especially when general conditions are in their favor. ”

“ Many people who lost all their money during the speculation period, become thrifty and economize during the period of depression, and start in to save again. Nearly everybody is pessimistic during this period. Trading on the Stock Exchange is irregular and as a rule very light.
This is the time to get stock bargains, but the general public as a rule doesn't take advantage of it. People are scared and think prices will go still lower. The big interests accumulate stocks during this period, and sell them during the period of prosperity. ”