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属类: 双语小说 【分类】其他读物 -[作者: 爱德温-勒菲弗] 阅读:[6209]
主要讲述了利弗莫尔的一生,不但用鲜活的笔触,复原了他充满激情的生活历程,更从专业的角度,详细介绍了利弗莫尔的各种技巧,并用最准确的表述,无限接近了他的思想最深邃处。
自工业化洪流激荡整个社会后,资本市场就以其无限魅力,强劲地席卷更多人参与其中。在过往100年的金钱游戏里,无疑出现许多顶尖高手,但最被后人不能忘怀的非杰西·利弗莫尔莫属。对数字的极端敏感加之惊人的记忆力,使不到20岁的利弗莫尔,就掌握了一套无往不胜的技术方法,最终被以盘剥“肥羊”为生的所有对赌行拒之门外。随即他转战华尔街,历经几次沉浮,炼就了一套辨识市场趋势的“秘诀”。凭着市场趋势这一“最佳搭档”,数度击溃幕后操纵者,成为当之无愧的投机之王
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好吧,我回家了。但是从回来那一刻开始,我忽然觉得,凑集些资本再转战华尔街,这才是我生活的目标。在整个美国,只有华尔街才是我唯一能玩大钱的地方。未来某一天,我找到那种感觉,并且凑够了钱,就会需要在华尔街那样的地方找存在感。当人状态比较好的时候,就会对那些有利条件充满渴望。

1
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虽然希望不大,但是我对对赌行还是寄予厚望。这时候,城市里已经很少有对赌行了,有几家我还不熟悉。有些对赌行还记得我,不让我大显身手,虽然我跟他们解释说,我在纽约赔光了所有的钱,我并没有原来所想的那样清楚股市,让我玩一玩对他们没有什么损害,但他们就是不同意。而新开的那些地方又不可靠,新老板们都觉得,要是一个客户有理由认定自己会猜对,顶多只应该买卖20股。

2
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我很缺钱,规模大些的对赌行能从客户手里收集足够多的资金,所以我找朋友跟我搭伙玩。我自己只偶尔进去瞧瞧,然后悄然撤退。有一次,我心痒难耐,劝说工作人员允许我玩一把,哪怕就50股。他当然拒绝了我。我和朋友提前编好了交流的暗号,以便于我指导他怎么玩。这种办法虽然一时管用,可于我来说太小打小闹。没多长时间,这个对赌行的人在接到我朋友的单子时开始抱怨。终于有那么一天,我朋友准备卖掉圣保罗的100股时,他们拒绝了他。

3
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后来我们才明白是怎么回事。有人看到我们在外面说话,就去对赌行告了密。当我朋友拿单子要卖出圣保罗的100股时,对方就拉着脸说:“我们不接受任何圣保罗的卖单,尤其是你的单子。”

4
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“为什么呀,乔?”朋友问。

5
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“不接就是不接,就这么简单。”乔回答说。

6
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“这些钱难道不是钱吗?你看清楚,全都在这里。”朋友拿出100美元递给他——我的100美元——一共10张10美元的。乔恼羞成怒地盯着他,我在旁边偷偷瞧着,像每一次看客户与对赌行吵架一样。其他股友们都围拢了过去,围在两个争吵的人身边。有人大声说话,或者对赌行和顾客之间,有任何争吵的迹象时,他们都会这样。他们喜欢凑热闹当看客,以便了解对赌行的实力。

7
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乔是对赌行的经理助理,他从柜台后走出来,走到我朋友面前,看着他,然后又看看我。

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“真好笑,”他慢条斯理地说,“太好笑了!你朋友利文斯顿没来时,你没事可干,光盯着公告牌看,一看就是几个小时,一句话都不说。可是他来了后,你就忙活得停不下了。你可能是在为你自己玩,但是这里以后就是不让你交易了。我们的交易规则还是跟原来一样,我们不上利文斯顿替你通风报信的当。”

9
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唉,这简直就是要逼死我啊。幸好我挣来的那点钱比花掉的多几百美元。我就想着怎么花钱才能物超所值,要去纽约是件很紧迫的事情。我想,下一次自己一定会做得更好。花时间对曾经的愚蠢行为进行反省后,我慢慢明白,首要目标是进行下一次的冒险行动。你看,当一个人站得远一些,他就能更清楚地看清事实。

10
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有一天,我和朋友们在一家旅馆大堂聊天。这些人都是稳稳当当的股民,我们一起聊着股市。我说:“以我的经验来看,经纪人执行方法拙劣,不可能有人赚钱,特别是像我这样,用市价交易的时候。”

11
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有个人扯着大嗓门问,我话里说的经纪人是谁。

12
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“全美国最好的经纪人。”我这样回答。他就继续问最好的经纪人又是谁。我知道他一点儿都不相信我曾经在最牛的公司里炒过股。

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我说:“就是纽交所的那些经纪人。并非他们不实在或者不细心,是你在那里填单子的时候,没办法知悉股票的实际股价,直到经纪人把成交回报单给你以后才可以。股票波动个一两点的次数,总比波动十几点的次数多,可股民受限于成交的条件,抓不住那点小波动来赚钱。如果对赌行里不设限制可以大玩,我都想天天泡在那里。”

14
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跟我对话的人叫罗伯茨,我以前从来没见过他。他好像很乐意帮我。他把我拉到旁边,问我是不是在其他地方玩过,我否认了。他说他知道一些棉花和其他农产品的交易所,还有些规模小点的交易所会员公司。这些地方非常小心在意,特别注重经纪人完成任务的质量,与纽交所那样的大机构的关系非常好。靠这些影响力和每个月几十万股的稳定生意,他们能为散户股民们提供更好的服务。

15
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“他们真的能满足散户们的需求。”他说着,“而且,他们的特长就是做外地业务。不管10股还是10万股他们都一视同仁。那里的工作人员特别热情能干,值得信任。”

16
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“好吧。可如果他们要向纽交所付1/8点佣金,那还赚什么钱呢?”

17
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“嗯,他们付的应该是1/8点的佣金。不过……你懂的。”他朝我挤眉弄眼。

18
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“是啊。”我说,“但是他们不退佣金,这不公平。证券交易所主管宁可让会员犯谋杀、纵火和重婚罪,也不愿意他们在和外地人做生意时,收取比1/8点佣金还低的费用。证券交易所能不能生存,靠的就是这个规则。”

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他可能确定了我曾经在交易所与人交过手,就继续说:“你听我说,也有违反规则被罚停一年交易的证券交易所会员公司,是吧?退佣金的方法太多太多了,没人会告发的。”见我一脸疑惑,他又说,“另外,有特殊服务的时候,我们……我的意思是,那些有自己的通信办法的公司会在1/8点佣金之上加收1/32点。这很公平,除非出现特殊情况,比如有人的账户不怎么有动静,不然是不会额外收钱的。你懂的,不然他们就赔了。他们做生意可不是完全为了自己的健康着想。”

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我终于明白,他是为一些冒牌经纪人拉活呢。

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“你可以介绍个可靠点的公司吗?”我问。

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“我知道全美国最大的经纪公司。”他答道,“我自己就在那里玩过,他们有78个分公司遍布美国和加拿大,生意特别好。如果不可靠,他们怎么可能年复一年做得那么好呢,是不是?”

23
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“这倒是。”我附和说,“他们和纽交所做的一样吗?”

24
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“一样,他们那里有交易市场和欧美交易所上市的所有股票,涉及小麦、棉花和其他农产品。任何你想做的,他们都做。世界各地都有他们的代理。他们是所有交易所的会员,不是用自己的名字参加的会员,就是秘密会员。”

25
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我已经了如指掌了,但我仍然想多套出些内情。

26
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“是啊。”我说,“可是即便这样,那些指令还是需要别人去执行,世界上没有谁能保证市况会怎么变化,报出的股价和报价机上显示的股价有多接近。股民们等在那儿得到消息,递上单子,再打电报到纽约,已经浪费了很多宝贵时间。我还是去纽约更好些,我宁可把钱输在一家可靠的公司里。”

27
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“我不懂输钱,我们的股民没有这种习惯。他们负责赚钱,我们负责照顾生意。”

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“你们的股民?”

29
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“哦,我在这家公司有些股份,我如果能招揽生意进去的话,也是乐意去做的。他们对我还可以,帮助我赚了些钱。你要同意的话,我介绍你认识他们。”

30
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“这家公司名叫什么?”我问。

31
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他说了名字,我也听说过,这家公司在很多报纸上做过广告,宣传他们能通过内部消息帮别人炒股发财,这是他们的突出特点。这家公司不是通常所说的那种对赌行,而是个坑骗股民的地方。他们伪装得很好,总能让人相信他们是合法正规的普通公司。其实,这样的公司存在很久了。

32
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在那个时代,他们是以卖空买空为职业的人,就是如今被吊销了执照的经纪人,他们的诈骗原则和形式都没有发生变化,只是路数上有了变化,那些谁都知晓的邪恶手段改了个形式。

33
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这类人会经常放出些内幕消息,忽悠股民们买卖股票。他们发出大量电报建议人们买进某一只股票,同时又发出很多电报给另一部分人卖出这只股票,就像那些传统的赌马顾问一样。接着,买卖双方的交易单就会大量涌入,公司再利用一家名气好的交易所会员机构买进和卖出1000股这只股票,所谓的规范经营记录也就产生了,要是哪个家伙不礼貌,怀疑他们在客户的单子上做手脚的话,这就是他们用来反驳质疑者的凭证。

34
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这类公司也发行自己经营的交易基金,以自认为最妥帖的形式,让参与者以书面形式把姓名和资金使用权授予他们。所以,当客户们的钱不翼而飞时,就算最暴躁的客户也没办法找到让他们合法赔偿的证据。他们会在账面上做多一只股票,然后忽悠股民们跟进,再耍个卖空的手段,骗掉几百个客户的保证金。他们谁都不放过,就连女人、教师和老人都是他们的忽悠对象。

35
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“我讨厌所有的经纪人。”我对这个推销员说,“让我考虑一下。”随后我赶紧离开,以免他再跟我多说话。

36
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我调查这家违规对赌行后发现,他们的客户有好几百人,虽然名声有些不好,可是我还没听说他们拒绝支付哪怕一个客户赚到的钱,本身要找到一个在那家公司赚了钱的客户就不容易,不过我还是赢钱了。当时总的来看,股市行情好像有利于他们,所以若一次交易有了损失,他们不会对客户耍赖。只是大多数这样的公司最后都倒闭了。美国出现过好多次这类公司的倒闭潮,就像传染病一样,一批批对赌行接二连三地倒闭了。没倒闭的对赌行,客户们也像惊弓之鸟,忙着把钱从里面抽出来。不过,在这个国家仍然有一些暂时停手的对赌行老板在卧薪尝胆,随时准备出击。

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那个人介绍的这家公司一直在挣钱,不时会有些诈骗事件发生,此外也没什么令人惊讶的消息。他们最擅长的就是忽悠那些想一口气吃成胖子的笨蛋,让他们在感觉不对时没办法用法律来自我保护。

38
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有个小伙子对我讲了他亲眼所见的一出戏。有一天,有家对赌行发出了600份电报,让客户们买进一只股票,同时又发出另外600份电报,忽悠另外一群客户出售这只股票。

39
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“对,我清楚这种手段。”我对他说。

40
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“不错。”他说,“第二天,他们又给那些客户发了电报,让他们平仓,去买卖另一只股票。我就问他们的一个高级合伙人,这样做的原因是什么。我明白他们前一部分的做法,是利用客户觉得会赚钱的心理,虽然最后他们都会亏损。可是你们发出这样的电报不就等于是把他们全部杀掉吗?这么做是为什么?”

41
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“哦。”那个合伙人说,“不管他们怎么买卖,跟谁买卖,什么时候买卖,在哪里买卖,反正这些客户都铁定要赔钱。一旦客户亏了钱,我就会失掉这些客户,我不如趁机从他们身上大捞一笔,之后再去找其他客户。”

42
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说实话,我对这些公司的商业道德丝毫不感兴趣。我提到过,泰勒公司欺负我,让我反感并决心去报复他们。可是这家公司,并没有让我产生那种感觉。他们是骗子没错,可也不见得有传说的那样可恶。我根本不想让他们替我做任何交易,不想遵照他们的内幕消息进行操作,也不会相信他们的鬼话。我只想赶紧赚钱去纽约,找一家名正言顺的公司做大生意,不用为警察忽然查访而提心吊胆,不用担心检察官们会冻结资金什么的。

43
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不管怎样,我打定主意要去探访这家对赌行,看他们到底有哪些比正规公司更诱人的条件。因为没多少钱,这样的公司又比较随便些,我就可以用几百美元去试水,一探究竟。

44
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我来到这家公司后,找到了经理。他知道我是个老手,曾经在纽约交易所会员公司开过户,而且把带去的钱全部亏光之后,就理所当然觉得我是个只会赔本的顽固分子,是经纪商稳定的衣食父母——不管他们是在你单子上作假的经纪商,还是乐于只赚手续费的经纪商。

45
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我对这个经理说,我想找的是执行力最强的公司,我一直在市场中玩,不想看到那种比实际股价滞后1个点的情形。

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他向我保证说,任何我认为正确的事情,他们都愿意做。他说他们想接我的生意,是因为他们想让我见识一下什么叫一流的公司。他们拥有很精明的工作人员,能以最快的速度完成操作,他们是靠这个出了名的。如果出现股价滞后的情况,他们不承诺一定精确到位,但会选择有利于客户的那个价格,我如果在这里开了户,马上就可以电报交易。很明显,他们对自家工作人员的执行水平很自信,如此一来,我完全可以当作是在正规对赌行玩一样。他们的意思是,希望我从下一轮就开始交易,我不想表现得太急切,所以拒绝了,说可能现在还不行。他就急切地忽悠我不要失去机会,要抓紧时间马上开始。

47
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在他们眼里,确实该这样。股市只要有轻微波动的时候,就是鼓动股民们去交易的时机,再在股市不稳定的时候榨掉他们身上的钱,把他们套牢。

48
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我只是留了姓名和地址。不过,从那天起,我就开始收到相关的电报和信件,劝我买某只股票,还说有一家大机构会把这只股票炒高50点。

49
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我忙碌起来了,开始寻找类似的其他公司。要想不受这一家的桎梏,多赚些钱,就需要多方下手,在邻近的几家公司一起玩。

50
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清楚行情后,我在三家公司开了户,还租了一个小办公室,安上了电报机,以便直接与他们联系。

51
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我小心翼翼地行事,为了不吓着他们,我把钱平均了一下投了进去。刚起步,我就赚到了钱,不过他们还是劝我做大一些,胆小鬼是不怎么受待见的。他们以为我做得越大就会赔得越多,输个精光也是指日可待,这样他们也就赚得越多。这种理论是有道理的——要是你想到他们打交道的都是一般散户,而一般散户在财务方面,从来都无法长久生存下去。破产的客户没钱了就没办法交易,但半死不活的客户会抱怨、不满,制造一些伤害业务的事故。

52
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我还联系了一家公司,他们可以直接用电报联系上纽约的代理人,这个代理人还是纽交所的会员。我买了一台自动收报机,谨慎地开始操作。我提到过,这很像是在对赌行里交易,只是稍微慢点。

53
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在这样的游戏中,我可以赚钱,也的确赚了钱。我还没修炼到投进去多少就赚取多少的境界,但是我基本上都在赚钱,周复一周地赚钱。我又有了生活舒适的资本了,还为去华尔街大干一番存了些钱。我还选择了另外两家经纪商,加起来就有了五家——当然了,他们都是我来钱的源头。

54
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我的计划也有失败的时候,选择的股票走势跟我的预期发展完全不一样。不过这对我没造成什么损伤,因为我的保证金不多。我与经纪人关系处理得也还不错,他们的账目和记录常常跟我的不同,自然是想坑我。这是多巧的事情——人为制造的巧合。每次遇到这类情况,我都会竭尽全力维护自己的利益,基本上都是以我获胜结束。他们也拼着命想从我手中捞走我捞来的钱,可能他们觉得我赚的钱只是暂时性的贷款。

55
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他们真的不正派,因为他们靠耍花招或设骗局赚钱,对经纪商应该赚取的利润不满意。一味地想着发大财的人总会赔本——他们从来不慎重,你或许觉得他们在合法地做非法生意。其实不是这样。“把客户当上帝才能赚钱。”这是经得起推敲的古训,可是他们却视而不见,就想着靠欺骗换钱。

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好几次他们都想耍老手段请我入瓮。我只要一不留神,就会掉入瓮中。他们总是在我的交易金额比正常少的时候,设法坑害我。我指责他们欺诈,他们当然不会承认,然后一切又照旧进行。与骗子交往,有个好处是,只要你能一直和他们保持交易,他们就会原谅你抓到他们的小辫子,这对于他们想赚钱的目的来说,都是小事一桩,他们乐于尽可能地包容你。真是好大方的一群东西啊!

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对他们的鬼把戏忍受够了以后,我就准备采取反制。首先,我选择了一些炒得已经失去兴头的冷门股,如果我直接用垃圾股来玩,他们可能会对我产生怀疑。其次,我告诉五个经纪人要买入这只股票。他们收到我发的单子后,等着下一轮的股价行情,我就在熟悉的一家交易所里,让他们为我马上卖掉100股那只股票。你能想象得出,当卖单出现的时候,人们会怎么样想:一家和外地有关系的经纪商竟然这么急着想卖出冷门股票,肯定是有人手里有廉价股。我给出的股价会出现在报价单上,我耐心等着低价买进400股这只股票。那几家公司很疑虑,问我知道了什么消息,我只告诉他们我知道点内幕消息。闭市之前,我又让那家交易所赶紧为我买回来100股,反正我不想做这100股空头,也不管它价格多高,这立马抬高了股价。与此同时,我要赶紧抛售400股,他们就给纽约发电报立刻照办。这样的话,我就达到了要给那些跟着炒作500股的经纪人一点儿颜色的目的。这是个令人满意的买卖过程。

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他们没有亡羊补牢,所以我惩罚了他们好几次,但其实这离他们应得的惩罚还远呢,100股对于推动股价显得太少,很少能超过1个点,不过我却能为以后去华尔街做投资积攒一点儿钱。有时候我会改变一下,卖空一些股票,但是从来没做得过于张扬。我很满意每次尝试都净赚600或800美元。

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有一天,我怎么也没料到,我的绝妙技巧居然拉动了十几个点的波动。我不是有意做成这样的,只是我恰好在一家经纪商那里操作200股,而不是像平常一样操作100股。不过,我在其他几家还是做了100股,可对他们的教训已经不小了。他们像受训狗一样痛苦不堪,怨恨说股市被人操控了。所以我去找那个劝我开户的经理的时候,他气愤地说:“有人在操纵股市,我不会给你付钱的。”他之前每次耍花招被我发现的时候,都假装宽宏大量的样子。以他的职位来说,他当时说的话的确是大言不惭。

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“我把单子给你的时候,并没有人操控,我能在你这里买进,就必须要卖出,这就是公平,你不能耍赖啊,清楚吗?”

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他嚷道:“是,我就耍赖,我知道有人在捣乱。”

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“谁?”

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“有人。”

64
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“那他们想捣谁的乱?”

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他说:“你的朋友肯定知情。”

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不过我告诉他:“你们都清楚,我是独来独往的,这个城市里每个人都知道这点,从一开始他们就知道。现在我客客气气地对你讲,快给我钱,我不想发脾气,快点。”

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他吼道:“一毛钱都没有,这笔交易有人作弊。”

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我烦躁得要命,正告他:“你立即把钱付我。”

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嚯,他表现得更厉害了,骂我是个大骗子,但最终还是给我付了钱。其他公司的人都没这么暴躁。一家公司的经理在办公室研究了我操控冷门股票的那套玩法,他接到我的单子时,自己也跟着买了些,有清清楚楚的记录,他也赚了些钱。这些人不会害怕人们告他们欺诈,他们一直准备着各种说辞。可他们害怕我会把他们生财的物件给查封了,至于在银行的钱,他们不会害怕,因为他们不会让钱暴露在这种危险当中。说他们很精明是不会为他们带来损失的,但是说他们赖账就不一样了,这不是好名声。客户们在经纪人手里赔钱不是什么稀罕事,可如果拿不到赚的钱,那可是这一行最大的忌讳。

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我拿到了钱,不过这次操纵10个上涨点的事情,结束了我骗那些骗子的美好时光。他们密切注意寻找他们用来欺骗几百个可怜客户的小花招。我又像以前一样玩,但市场并不是始终配合我的系统,我也不是一直很顺利——我的意思是我受到下单金额的限制,没办法赚大钱。

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做了一年多,我使尽了这个行当里的各种解数,赚了钱,日子过得也还不错,还买了一辆车,只是钱还是不够用。我需要赚钱,也需要生活。即使炒股一切顺利,我也要节约些,不能大手大脚;如果不太顺利,自然没钱花了。我节省下来了一笔钱,觉得在这五家对赌行是没机会赚大钱的,所以就决定回纽约去。

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我开着车,和一个做汽车生意的朋友,一起踏上了去纽约的路。在纽黑文停下吃饭时,我们碰到了一个做过生意的老交情,聊天时他说城里还有家生意很好的对赌行。

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在驶离旅店去纽约的路上,我们看到了那家对赌行,光从外面瞅瞅是没办法消除心痒的,于是我们下车进去看。里面不是很阔绰,但是熟悉的看板,还有客户都在那里,而且股票游戏正在进行。

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经理像是当过演员或者正在发表竞选演说,他的话动人心弦。他对大家说早安的样子,就好像他用显微镜花了十年的时间去找早晨,发现了早晨的好处,并且把这个发现跟蓝天、晨光和公司的资金,当成礼物献给你。他看我们开着很华丽的车,就觉得我们既年轻又显得无所事事——我估计我看起来才20岁——可能是耶鲁大学的学生。我们没告诉他我们真正的来历,他也没给我们说话的机会,就开始一番演说。他说很高兴见到我们,问我们能否找个位置坐下来,还说上午的这次交易是慈善活动,是为了给大学生们赚个零花钱的机会,而有史以来,聪明的大学生零花钱从来就没够用过。既然已经到了这里,就借机投入一点儿钱,会让你获得很高的收入。股市上能赚到任何人所能花费的零用钱。

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呃,对赌行的经理这么急着让我们玩,不玩一把多可惜啊。所以,我就对他说要玩一下,因为我听说很多人都炒股赚了大钱。

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一开始我只是小玩了一把,赢到钱后,就加大了些投入,我朋友也一起跟着玩。

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我们在纽黑文住了一晚,第二天上午十点零五分,我又到了这家诱人的对赌行,经理很高兴再次看到我们,他觉得我们会好运连连。我赚了将近1500美元。又隔一天上午,我们进去看到那位伟大的演讲家后,我给了他一张卖出500股的单子,他犹豫不决,不过还是照办了。股价下跌超过1个点,我结束了交易,赚了500美元,加上500美元的保证金,他从钱柜里拿了1000美元,20张50美元的钞票,翻来覆去数了好几遍,又在我眼前一张张数一番,就像有汗粘住了钱一样,但是他终于还是把钱给了我。他站在我后面,双臂抱在一起,咬着嘴唇盯着我身后的一扇窗户上面看。

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我说我要卖出200股钢铁公司的股票,他装作没听见,我又改口说300股,他才回过神来,只是望着我,然后吧唧着嘴咽了咽口水,一副要指摘腐败体制的模样。临了,他用手指着我手里的钞票说:“带着些玩意儿走吧。”

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我问:“什么玩意儿?”我没搞懂他指的什么。

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他生气了:“大学生,你们要去哪里?”

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我说:“纽约。”

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他絮絮叨叨地说:“很好,很好,你们必须走,今天我算认识了两个家伙——学生!我知道你们不是,你们是什么我清楚了。哼!哼!哼!”

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我礼貌地说:“就这样吗?”

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他稍顿一下后说:“就这样,你们——”说着他失去了在大厅里原有的理智,气愤地叫道,“你们两个是全美国最大的骗子!学生?一年级学生吧!哼!”

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我们离开自言自语的他。他也许在乎的不是钱,所有把这种事当职业的人都不会在乎钱,有赚有赔在所难免,只是他受到了我们的耍弄,自尊心受到了伤害。

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我就这样第三次来到了华尔街,其实我一直在研究我的炒股方法,试图找出真正的问题,找出让我在富勒顿公司功败垂成的原因。

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20岁时,我第一次玩1万美元并且赔掉了,可我知道是为什么——因为我没抓好机会,没利用好经验和钻研出的方法,纯粹靠赌博。我想要赚钱,可是却不知道应该在适宜的时候来赚钱。22岁的时候,我已经凑够了5万美元,却在5月9日的时候赔了个精光,我也知道这是为什么——原因是股市行情记录滞后,还出现了幅度很大的波动。可是自打从圣路易斯回到纽约,经历了5月9日的恐慌事件后,我仍然没有搞懂输钱的真正原因。我有一些理论,能够起到些亡羊补牢的作用,但是我需要实际操作。

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世界上没有什么比让你失去一切更能教会你什么是不该做的了,一旦你知道了不该做什么才能不亏钱时,你也就开始学习该做什么才能赚钱了,知道了吗?你开始学习了!

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WELL,I went home.But the moment I was back I knew that I had but one mission in life and that was to get a stake and go back to Wall Street.That was the only place in the country where I could trade heavily.Some day,when my game was all right,I’d need such a place.When a man is right he wants to get all that is coming to him for being right.

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I didn’t have much hope,but,of course,I tried to get into the bucket shops again.There were fewer of them and some of them were run by strangers.Those who remembered me wouldn’t give me a chance to show them whether I had gone back as a trader or not.I told them the truth,that I had lost in New York whatever I had made at home;that I didn’t know as much as I used to think I did;and that there was no reason why it should not now be good business for them to let me trade with them.But they wouldn’t.And the new places were unreliable.Their owners thought twenty shares was as much as a gentleman ought to buy if he had any reason to suspect he was going to guess right.

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I needed the money and the bigger shops were taking in plenty of it from their regular customers.I got a friend of mine to go into a certain office and trade.I just sauntered in to look them over.I again tried to coax the order clerk to accept a small order,even if it was only fifty shares.Of course he said no.I had rigged up a code with this friend so that he would buy or sell when and what I told him.But that only made me chicken feed.Then the office began to grumble about taking my friend’s orders.Finally one day he tried to sell a hundred St.Paul and they shut down on him.

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We learned afterward that one of the customers saw us talking together outside and went in and told the office,and when my friend went up to the order clerk to sell that hundred St.Paul the guy said:

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“We’re not taking any selling orders in St.Paul,not from you.”

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“Why,what’s the matter,Joe?”asked my friend.

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“Nothing doing,that’s all,”answered Joe.

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“Isn’t that money any good?Look it over.It’s all there.”And my friend passed over the hundred—my hundred—in tens.He tried to look indignant and I was looking unconcerned;but most of the other customers were getting close to the combatants,as they always did when there was loud talking or the slightest semblance of a scrap between the shop and any customer.They wanted to get a line on the merits of the case in order to get a line on the solvency of the concern.

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The clerk,Joe,who was a sort of assistant manager,came out from behind his cage,walked up to my friend,looked at him and then looked at me.

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“It’s funny,”he said slowly—“it’s damned funny that you never do a single thing here when your friend Livingston isn’t around.You just sit and look at the board by the hour.Never a peep.But after he comes in you get busy all of a sudden.Maybe you are acting for yourself;but not in this office any more.We don’t fall for Livingston tipping you off.”

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Well,that stopped my board money.But I had made a few hundred more than I had spent and I wondered how I could use them,for the need of making enough money to go back to New York with was more urgent than ever.I felt that I would do better the next time.I had had time to think calmly of some of my foolish plays;and then,one can see the whole better when one sees it from a little distance.The immediate problem was to make the new stake.

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One day I was in a hotel lobby,talking to some fellows I knew,who were pretty steady traders.Everybody was talking stock market.I made the remark that nobody could beat the game on account of the rotten execution he got from his brokers,especially when he traded at the market,as I did.

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A fellow piped up and asked me what particular brokers I meant.

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I said,“The best in the land,”and he asked who might they be.I could see he wasn’t going to believe I ever dealt with first-class houses.

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But I said,“I mean,any member of the New York Stock Exchange.It isn’t that they are crooked or careless,but when a man gives an order to buy at the market he never knows what that stock is going to cost him until he gets a report from the brokers.There are more moves of one or two points than of ten or fifteen.But the outside trader can’t catch the small rises or drops because of the execution.I’d rather trade in a bucket shop any day in the week,if they’d only let a fellow trade big.”

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The man who had spoken to me I had never seen before.His name was Roberts.He seemed very friendly disposed.He took me aside and asked me if I had ever traded in any of the other exchanges,and I sand no.He said he knew some houses that were members of the Cotton Exchange and the Produce Exchange and the smaller stock exchanges.These firms were very careful and paid special attention to the execution.He said that they had confidential connections with the biggest and smartest houses on the New York Stock Exchange and through their personal pull and by guaranteeing a business of hundreds of thousands of shares a month they got much better service than an individual customer could get.

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“They really cater to the small customer,”he said.“They make a specialty of out-of-town business and they take just as much pains with a ten-share order as they do with one for ten thousand.They are very competent and honest.”

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“Yes.But if they pay the Stock Exchange house the regular eighth commission,where do they come in?”

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“Well,they are supposed to pay the eighth.But—you know!”He winked at me.

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“Yes,”I said.“But the one thing a Stock Exchange firm will not do is to split commissions.The governors would rather a member committed murder,arson and bigamy than to do business for outsiders for less than a kosher eighth.The very life of the Stock Exchange depends upon their not violating that one rule.”

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He must have seen that I had talked with Stock Exchange people,for he said,“Listen!Every now and then one of those pious Stock Exchange houses is suspended for a year for violating that rule,isn’t it?There are ways and ways of rebating so nobody can squeal.”He probably saw unbelief in my face,for he went on:“And besides,on certain kind of business we—I mean,these wire houses—charge a thirty-second extra,in addition to the eighth commission.They are very nice about it.They never charge the extra commission except in unusual cases,and then only if the customer has an inactive account.It wouldn’t pay them,you know,otherwise.They aren’t in business exclusively for their health.”

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By that time I knew he was touting for some phony brokers.

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“Do you know any reliable house of that kind?”I asked him.

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“I know the biggest brokerage firm in the United States,”he said.“I trade there myself.They have branches in seventy-eight cities in the United States and Canada.They do an enormous business.And they couldn’t very well do it year in and year out if they weren’t strictly on the level,could they?”

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“Certainly not,”I agreed.“Do they trade in the same stocks that are dealt in on the New York Stock Exchange?”

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“Of course;and on the curb and on any other exchange in this country,or Europe.They deal in wheat,cotton,provisions;anything you want.They have correspondents everywhere and memberships in all the exchanges,either in their own name or on the quiet.”

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I knew by that time,but I thought I’d lead him on.

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“Yes,”I said,“but that does not alter the fact that the orders have to be executed by somebody,and nobody living can guarantee how the market will be or how close the ticker’s prices are to the actual prices on the floor of the Exchange.By the time a man gets the quotation here and he hands in an order and it’s telegraphed to New York,some valuable time has gone.I might better go back to New York and lose my money there in respectable company.”

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“I don’t know anything about losing money;our customers don’t acquire that habit.They make money.We take care of that.”

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“Your customers?”

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“Well,I take an interest in the firm,and if I can turn some business their way I do so because they’ve always treated me white and I’ve made a good deal of money through them.If you wish I’ll introduce you to the manager.”

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“What’s the name of the firm?”I asked him.

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He told me.I had heard about them.They ran ads in all the papers,calling attention to the great profits made by those customers who followed their inside information on active stocks.That was the firm’s great specialty.They were not a regular bucket shop,but bucketeers,alleged brokers who bucketed their orders but nevertheless went through an elaborate camouflage to convince the world that they were regular brokers engaged in a legitimate business.They were one of the oldest of that class of firms.

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They were the prototype at that time of the same sort of brokers that went broke this year by the dozen.The general principles and methods were the same,though the particular devices for fleecing the public differed somewhat,certain details having been changed when the old tricks became too well known.

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These people used to send out tips to buy or sell a certain stock—hundreds of telegrams advising the instant purchase of a certain stock and hundreds recommending other customers to sell the same stock,on the old racing-tipster plan.Then orders to buy and sell would come in.The firm would buy and sell,say,a thousand of that stock through a reputable Stock Exchange firm and get a regular report on it.This report they would show to any doubting Thomas who was impolite enough to speak about bucketing customers’ orders.

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They also used to form discretionary pools in the office and as a great favor allowed their customers to authorize them,in writing,to trade with the customer’s money and in the customer’s name,as they in their judgment deemed best.That way the most cantankerous customer had no legal redress when his money disappeared.They’d bull a stock,on paper,and put the customers in and then they’d execute one of the old-fashioned bucket-shop drives and wipe out hundreds of shoestring margins.They did not spare anyone,women,schoolteachers and old men being their best bet.

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“I’m sore on all brokers,”I told the tout.“I’ll have to think this over,”and I left him so he wouldn’t talk any more to me.

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I inquired about this firm.I learned that they had hundreds of customers and although there were the usual stories I did not find any case of a customer not getting his money from them if he won any.The difficulty was in finding anybody who had ever won in that office;but I did.Things seemed to be going their way just then,and that meant that they probably would not welsh if a trade went against them.Of course most concerns of that kind eventually go broke.There are times when there are regular epidemics of bucketeering bankruptcies,like the old-fashioned runs on several banks after one of them goes up.The customers of the others get frightened and they run to take their money out.But there are plenty of retired bucket-shop keepers in this country.

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Well,I heard nothing alarming about the tout’s firm except that they were on the make,first,last and all the time,and that they were not always truthful.Their specialty was trimming suckers who wanted to get rich quick.But they always asked their customers’ permission,in writing,to take their rolls away from them.

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One chap I met did tell me a story about seeing six hundred telegrams go out one day advising customers to get aboard a certain stock and six hundred telegrams to other customers strongly urging them to sell that same stock,at once.

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“Yes,I know the trick,”I said to the chap who was telling me.

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“Yes,”he said.“But the next day they sent telegrams to the same people advising them to close out their interest in everything and buy—or sell—another stock.I asked the senior partner,who was in the office,‘Why do you do that?The first part I understand.Some of your customers are bound to make money on paper for a while,even if they and the others eventually lose.But by sending out telegrams like this you simply kill them all.What’s the big idea?’”

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“‘Well,’he said,‘the customers are bound to lose their money anyhow,no matter what they buy,or how or where or when.When they lose their money I lose the customers.Well,I might as well get as much of their money as I can—and then look for a new crop.’”

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Well,I admit frankly that I wasn’t concerned with the business ethics of the firm.I told you I felt sore on the Teller concern and how it tickled me to get even with them.But I didn’t have any such feeling about this firm.They might be crooks or they might not be as black as they were painted.I did not propose to let them do any trading for me,or follow their tips or believe their lies.My one concern was with getting together a stake and returning to New York to trade in fair amounts in an office where you did not have to be afraid the police would raid the joint,as they did the bucket shops,or see the postal authorities swoop down and tie up your money so that you’d be lucky to get eight cents on the dollar a year and a half later.

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Anyhow,I made up my mind that I would see what trading advantages of this firm offered over what you might call the legitimate brokers.I didn’t have much money to put up as margin,and firms that bucketed orders were naturally much more liberal in that respect,so that a few hundred dollars went much further in their offices.

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I went down to their place and had a talk with the manager himself.When he found out that I was an old trader and had formerly had accounts in New York with Stock Exchange houses and that I had lost all I took with me he stopped promising to make a million a minute for me if I let them invest my savings.He figured that I was a permanent sucker,the ticker-hound kind that always plays and always loses;a steady-income provider for brokers,whether they were the kind that bucket your orders or modestly content themselves with the commissions.

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I just told the manager that what I was looking for was decent execution,because I always traded at the market and I didn’t want to get reports that showed a difference of a half or a whole point from the ticker price.

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He assured me on his word of honor that they would do whatever I thought was right.They wanted my business because they wanted to show me what high-class brokering was.They had in their employ the best talent in the business.In fact,they were famous for their execution.If there was any difference between the ticker price and the report it was always in favor of the customer,though of course they didn’t guarantee that.If I opened an account with them I could buy and sell at the price which came over the wire,they were so confident of their brokers.

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Naturally that meant that I could trade there to all intents and purposes as though I were in a bucket shop—that is,they’d let me trade at the next quotation.I didn’t want to appear too anxious,so I shook my head and told him I guessed I wouldn’t open an account that day,but I’d let him know.He urged me strongly to begin right away as it was a good market to make money in.It was—for them;a dull market with prices seesawing slightly,just the kind to get customers in and then wipe them out with a sharp drive in the tipped stock.I had some trouble in getting away.

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I had given him my name and address,and that very same day I began to get prepaid telegrams and letters urging me to get aboard of some stock or other in which they said they knew an inside pool was operating for a fifty-point rise.

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I was busy going around and finding out all I could about several other brokerage concerns of the same bucketing kind.It seemed to me that if I could be sure of getting my winnings out of their clutches the only way of my getting together some real money was to trade in these near bucket-shops.

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When I had learned all I could I opened accounts with three firms.I had taken a small office and had direct wires run to the three brokers.

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I traded in a small way so they wouldn’t get frightened off at the very start.I made money on balance and they were not slow in telling me that they expected real business from customers who had direct wires to their offices.They did not hanker for pikers.They figured that the more I did the more I’d lose,and the more quickly I was wiped out the more they’d make.It was a sound enough theory when you consider that these people necessarily dealt with averages and the average customer was never long-lived,financially speaking.A busted customer can’t trade.A half-crippled customer can whine and insinuate things and make trouble of one or another kind that hurts business.

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I also established a connection with a local firm that had a direct wire to its New York correspondent,who were also members of the New York Stock Exchange.I had a stock ticker put in and I began to trade conservatively.As I told you,it was pretty much like trading in bucket shops,only it was a little slower.

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It was a game that I could beat,and I did.I never got it down to such a fine point that I could win ten times out of ten;but I won on balance,taking it week in and week out.I was again living pretty well,but always saving something,to increase the stake that I was to take back to Wall Street.I got a couple of wires into two more of these bucketing brokerage houses,making five in all—and,of course,my good firm.

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There were times when my plans went wrong and my stocks did not run true to form,but did the opposite of what they should have done if they had kept up their regard for precedent.But they did not hit me very hard—they couldn’t,with my shoestring margins.My relations with my brokers were friendly enough.Their accounts and records did not always agree with mine,and the differences uniformly happened to be against me.Curious coincidence—not!But I fought for my own and usually had my way in the end.They always had the hope of getting away from me what I had taken from them.They regarded my winnings as temporary loans,I think.

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They really were not sporty,being in the business to make money by hook or by crook instead of being content with the house percentage.Since suckers always lose money when they gamble in stocks—they never really speculate—you’d think these fellows would run what you might call a legitimate illegitimate business.But they didn’t.“Copper your customers and grow rich”is an old and true adage,but they did not seem ever to have heard of it and didn’t stop at plain bucketing.

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Several times they tried to double-cross me with the old tricks.They caught me a couple of times because I wasn’t looking.They always did that when I had taken no more than my usual line.I accused them of being short sports or worse,but they denied it and it ended by my going back to trading as usual.The beauty of doing business with a crook is that he always forgives you for catching him,so long as you don’t stop doing business with him.It’s all right as far as he is concerned.He is willing to meet you more than halfway.Magnanimous souls!

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Well,I made up my mind that I couldn’t afford to have the normal rate of increase of my stake impaired by crooks’ tricks,so I decided to teach them a lesson.I picked out some stock that after having been a speculative favorite had become inactive.Water-logged.If I had taken one that never had been active they would have suspected my play.I gave out buying orders on this stock to my five bucketeering brokers.When the orders were taken and they were waiting for the next quotation to come out on the tape,I sent in an order through my Stock Exchange house to sell a hundred shares of that particular stock at the market.I urgently asked for quick action.Well,you can imagine what happened when the selling order got to the floor of the Exchange;a dull inactive stock that a commission house with out-of-town connections wanted to sell in a hurry.Somebody got cheap stock.But the transaction as it would be printed on the tape was the price that I would pay on my five buying orders.I was long on balance four hundred shares of that stock at a low figure.The wire house asked me what I’d heard,and I said I had a tip on it.Just before the close of the market I sent an order to my reputable house to buy back that hundred shares,and not waste any time;that I didn’t want to be short under any circumstances;and I didn’t care what they paid.So they wired to New York and the order to buy that hundred quick resulted in a sharp advance.I of course had put in selling orders for the five hundred shares that my friends had bucketed.It worked very satisfactorily

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Still,they didn’t mend their ways,and so I worked that trick on them several times.I did not dare punish them as severely as they deserved,seldom more than a point or two on a hundred shares.But it helped to swell my little hoard that I was saving for my next Wall Street venture.I sometimes varied the process by selling some stock short,without overdoing it.I was satisfied with my six or eight hundred clear for each crack.

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One day the stunt worked so well that it went far beyond all calculations for a ten-point swing.I wasn’t looking for it.As a matter of fact it so happened that I had two hundred shares instead of my usual hundred at one broker’s,though only a hundred in the four other shops.That was too much of a good thing—for them.They were sore as pups about it and they began to say things over the wires.So I went and saw the manager,the same man who had been so anxious to get my account,and so forgiving every time I caught him trying to put something over on me.He talked pretty big for a man in his position.

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“That was a fictitious market for that stock,and we won’t pay you a damned cent!”he swore.

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“It wasn’t a fictitious market when you accepted my order to buy.You let me in then,all right,and now you’ve got to let me out.You can’t get around that for fairness,can you?”

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“Yes,I can!”he yelled.“I can prove that somebody put up a job.”

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“Who put up a job?”I asked.

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“Somebody!”

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“Who did they put it up on?”I asked.

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“Some friends of yours were in it as sure as pop,”he said.

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But I told him,“You know very well that I play a lone hand.Everybody in this town knows that.They’ve known it ever since I started trading in stocks.Now I want to give you some friendly advice:you just send and get that money for me.I don’t want to be disagreeable.Just do what I tell you.”

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“I won’t pay it.It was a rigged-up transaction,”he yelled.

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I got tired of his talk.So I told him:“You’ll pay it to me right now and here.”

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Well,he blustered a little more and accused me flatly of being the guilty thimblerigger;but he finally forked over the cash.The others were not so rambunctious.In one office the manager had been studying these inactive-stock plays of mine and when he got my order he actually bought the stock for me and then some for himself in the Little Board,and he made some money.These fellows didn’t mind being sued by customers on charges of fraud,as they generally had a good technical legal defense ready.But they were afraid I’d attach the furniture—the money in the bank was not available because they took care not to have any funds exposed to that danger.It would not hurt them to be known as pretty sharp,but to get a reputation for welshing was fatal.For a customer to lose money at his broker’s is no rare event.But for a customer to make money and then not get it is the worst crime on the speculators’ statute books.

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I got my money from all;but that ten-point jump put an end to the pleasing pastime of skinning skinners.They were on the lookout for the little trick that they themselves had used to defraud hundreds of poor customers.I went back to my regular trading;but the market wasn’t always right for my system—that is,limited as I was by the size of the orders they would take,I couldn’t make a killing.

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I had been at it over a year,during which I used every device that I could think of to make money trading in those wire houses.I had lived very comfortably,bought an automobile and didn’t limit myself about my expenses.I had to make a stake,but I also had to live while I was doing it.If my position on the market was right I couldn’t spend as much as I made,so that I’d always be saving some.If I was wrong I didn’t make any money and therefore couldn’t spend.As I said,I had saved up a fair-sized roll,and there wasn’t so much money to be made in the five wire houses;so I decided to return to New York.

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I had my own automobile and I invited a friend of mine who also was a trader to motor to New York with me.He accepted and we started.We stopped at New Haven for dinner.At the hotel I met an old trading acquaintance,and among other things he told me there was a shop in town that had a wire and was doing a pretty good business.

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We left the hotel on our way to New York,but I drove by the street where the bucket shop was to see what the outside looked like.We found it and couldn’t resist the temptation to stop and have a look at the inside.It wasn’t very sumptuous,but the old blackboard was there,and the customers,and the game was on.

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The manager was a chap who looked as if he had been an actor or a stump speaker.He was very impressive.He’d say good morning as though he had discovered the morning’s goodness after ten years of searching for it with a microscope and was making you a present of the discovery as well as of the sky,the sun and the firm’s bank roll.He saw us come up in the sporty-looking automobile,and as both of us were young and careless—I don’t suppose I looked twenty—he naturally concluded we were a couple of Yale boys.I didn’t tell him we weren’t.He didn’t give me a chance,but began delivering a speech.He was very glad to see us.Would we have a comfortable seat?The market,we would find,was philanthropically inclined that morning;in fact,clamoring to increase the supply of collegiate pocket money,of which no intelligent undergraduate ever had a sufficiency since the dawn of historic time.But here and now,by the beneficence of the ticker,a small initial investment would return thousands.More pocket money than anybody could spend was what the stock market yearned to yield.

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Well,I thought it would be a pity not to do as the nice man of the bucket shop was so anxious to have us do,so I told him I would do as he wished,because I had heard that lots of people made lots of money in the stock market.

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I began to trade,very conservatively,but increasing the line as I won.My friend followed me.

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We stayed overnight in New Haven and the next morning found us at the hospitable shop at five minutes to ten.The orator was glad to see us,thinking his turn would come that day.But I cleaned up within a few dollars of fifteen hundred.The next morning when we dropped in on the great orator,and handed him an order to sell five hundred Sugar he hesitated,but finally accepted it—in silence!The stock broke over a point and I closed out and gave him the ticket.There was exactly five hundred dollars coming to me in profits,and my five hundred dollar margin.He took twenty fifties from the safe,counted them three times very slowly,then he counted them again in front of me.It looked as if his fingers were sweating mucilage the way the notes seemed to stick to him,but finally he handed the money to me.He folded his arms,bit his lower lip,kept it bit,and stared at the top of a window behind me.

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I told him I’d like to sell two hundred Steel.But he never stirred.He didn’t hear me.I repeated my wish,only I made it three hundred shares.He turned his head.I waited for the speech.But all he did was to look at me.Then he smacked his lips and swallowed—as if he was going to start an attack on fifty years of political misrule by the unspeakable grafters of the opposition.

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Finally he waved his hand toward the yellow-backs in my hand and said,“Take away that bauble!”

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“Take away what?”I said.I hadn’t quite understood what he was driving at.

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“Where are you going,student?”He spoke very impressively.

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“New York,”I told him.

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“That’s right,”he said,nodding about twenty times.“That is exactly right.You are going away from here all right,because now I know two things—two,student!I know what you are not,and I know what you are.Yes!Yes!Yes!”

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“Is that so?”I said very politely.

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“Yes.You two—”He paused;and then he stopped being in Congress and snarled:“You two are the biggest sharks in the United States of America!Students?Ye-eh!You must be freshmen Ye-eh!”

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We left him talking to himself.He probably didn’t mind the money so much.No professional gambler does.It’s all in the game and the luck’s bound to turn.It was his being fooled in us that hurt his pride.

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That is how I came back to Wall Street for a third attempt.I had been studying,of course,trying to locate the exact trouble with my system that had been responsible for my defeats in A.R.Fullerton & Co.’s office.I was twenty when I made my first ten thousand,and I lost that.But I knew how and why—because I traded out of season all the time;because when I couldn’t play according to my system,which was based on study and experience,I went in and gambled.I hoped to win,instead of knowing that I ought to win on form.When I was about twenty-two I ran up my stake to fifty thousand dollars;I lost it on May ninth.But I knew exactly why and how.It was the laggard tape and the unprecedented violence of the movements that awful day.But I didn’t know why I had lost after my return from St.Louis or after the May ninth panic.I had theories—that is,remedies for some of the faults that I thought I found in my play.But I needed actual practice.

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There is nothing like losing all you have in the world for teaching you what not to do.And when you know what not to do in order not to lose money,you begin to learn what to do in order to win.Did you get that?You begin to learn!

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序号 英文/音标 中文解释 更多操作

stake

[steɪk]

n.桩;赌注;利害关系

unreliable

[ˌʌnrɪ’laɪəbl]

adj.不可靠的

grumble

[’ɡrʌmbl]

v.发牢骚;抱怨;轰鸣

solvency

[’sɒlvənsi]

n.偿付能力;溶解力

peep

[piːp]

n.瞥见;偷看;初现

trader

[’treɪdə(r)]

n.商人;商船

York

[jɔːk]

约克郡;〈板球〉使击球员出局

competent

[’kɒmpɪtənt]

adj.有能力的;足够的;胜任的

wink

[wɪŋk]

n.眨眼;使眼色;瞬间

kosher

[’kəʊʃə(r)]

adj.(指饮食)干净的;合法的

unbelief

[ˌʌnbɪ’liːf]

n.不信宗教;无信仰;不信

phony

[’fəʊniː]

adj.假的;伪造的;欺骗的

Canada

[’kænədə]

n.加拿大(位于北美洲北部)

camouflage

[’kæməflɑːʒ]

n.伪装;掩饰;迷彩服

fleece

[fliːs]

n.羊毛;一次剪得的羊毛;羊毛状物

impolite

[ˌɪmpə’laɪt]

adj.不礼貌的;粗鲁的

shoestring

[’ʃuːstrɪŋ]

adj.小本经营的;微小的;像鞋带一样狭长的

tout

[taʊt]

v.兜售;高价卖;刺探;吹捧

welsh

[welʃ]

adj.威尔士人的;威尔士语的

sucker

[’sʌkə(r)]

n.傻瓜;吸盘;吸管;棒棒糖

chap

[tʃæp]

vt. 使(皮肤)裂口,裂开;变粗糙;

anyhow

[’enihaʊ]

adv.无论如何;不管怎样

cent

[sent]

n.分

Anyhow

[’enihaʊ]

adv.无论如何;不管怎样

ticker

[’tɪkə(r)]

n.滴答作响的东西;股票行情自动收录器; 表;心脏

seesaw

[’siːsɔː]

n.跷跷板;上下动

prepay

[’priː’peɪ]

vt.预付

clutch

[klʌtʃ]

vt.抓住

insinuate

[ɪn’sɪnjueɪt]

v.暗示;迂回进入;迂回进行;含沙射影的说

coincidence

[kəʊ’ɪnsɪdəns]

n.巧合;一致;同时发生

adage

[’ædɪdʒ]

n.格言;谚语;古话

Magnanimous

[mæɡ’nænɪməs]

adj.度量大的;宽大的;有雅量的;高尚的

satisfactorily

[ˌsætɪs’fæktərəli]

adv.满意地;圆满地

overdo

[ˌəʊvə’duː]

v.做或表现得过分;使用过多;煮得过久

pup

[pʌp]

n.小狗;小海豹;小伙子

fictitious

[fɪk’tɪʃəs]

adj.假想的;虚假的;虚伪的

disagreeable

[ˌdɪsə’ɡriːəbl]

adj.不愉快的;厌恶的;不为人喜的

speculator

[’spekjuleɪtə(r)]

n.投机者;投机商人;思索家

defraud

[dɪ’frɔːd]

v.诈骗

acquaintance

[ə’kweɪntəns]

n.熟人;相识;了解

sumptuous

[’sʌmptʃuəs]

adj.华丽的;奢侈的

mucilage

[’mjuːsɪlɪdʒ]

n.粘质物;粘液;胶水

grafter

[’grɑːftə]

n.接枝的人;收贿者;贪污者

bauble

[’bɔːbl]

n.小玩意;美观的便宜货;华而不实的小件装饰品;丑角手杖

snarl

[snɑːl]

v.吼叫;嚎叫;咆哮;怒骂

gambler

[’ɡæmblə(r)]

n.赌徒

简典