The market rose to such heights that the selling price of securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange--to say nothing of the untold billions listed on other exchanges--reached a figure far in excess of all the money in the world. Though it was reiterated time and time again that customers’ accounts with brokers were amply protected, they were of course margined with other securities, and thus the pyramid grew until it staggered the imagination even of those who built it. Now and then the great top-heavy structure leaned heavily and looked as if it were coming down; but each time powerful props were applied and the timid ones who had run for cover returned with restored confidence. This, like the old cry of “Wolf! Wolf!” was repeated so many times that it got to be the general impression that there was no wolf at all. The old adage that “stocks are made to sell” gave place to a new slogan, “Stocks are made to buy.” Every sort of industry was incorporated and over-capitalized, and notwithstanding the hundreds of millions of new shares lately issued it was currently reported that stocks were very scarce; that they had nearly all gone into “strong hands;” that they were locked up in strong boxes, and nothing could shake them out. To test the truth of this story, I made inquiries among several brokers and traders of my acquaintance, with this result: I found that almost without exception, traders were carrying more securities on margin than they had ever owned before, and that a vast number of them were pyramiding on their profits. I personally knew one man who prior to Coolidge’s election had never carried more than two or three hundred shares, but thereafter he began buying, and continued to extend his lines until in September, 1929, he was long of 53,000 shares on which he had a profit of well upward of a million dollars--a sum far greater than he had ever dreamed of owning. On a thousand shares of General Electric he had a profit of nearly three hundred thousand dollars. In response to my inquiry if he did not think it wise to cash in a part of his profits, he regarded me with amazement. “That,” said he, “is what everybody told me two years ago. Stocks are all in strong hands; and this market is going on up for at least three more years. And besides, if I cash in I’ll have to pay the government a heavy tax on my profits.”