The New York Stock Exchange member will tell you that the evil of
bucketshopping is that the bucketshopper is tempted when the public is
long on stocks to depress the market by heavy short sales. On the other
hand, the bucketshopper urges upon you that his business is gambling
against fluctuations which he has no hand in making and that the
financial powers of Wall Street resort to the same trick that he is
occasionally accused of. The "interests" know at every hour in the day
approximately how many shares of stocks have been borrowed for delivery
against "short" sales or are being carried on margin for the long
account. They know what the public's short interest or long interest
is, and they, too, have it in their power to shake out the public at
any moment they choose. Worse, it is common knowledge that this
practice is continually resorted to. Stocks are put up and held up on
bad news and marked down and held down on good news or no news at all.
News is withheld and is manufactured to suit occasions. For years the
market has been thimble-rigged to a frazzle. Margin-trading "suckers"
have been milked to a finish. George E. Crater, Jr., writes:
Margin trading on the New York Stock Exchange is the most dangerous
and destructive form of gambling known, because, being "legal"
and therefore "respectable," it allures hundreds of thousands of
people who would never think of risking their money at "faro,"
"rouge-et-noir," "roulette," or any of the other games of chance.
Statistics show that more people are ruined physically, morally
and financially by stock gambling than by all the other forms of
ordinary gambling combined. Monte Carlo is a Christian philanthropy
compared with "Wall Street." You have quite as good, if not a
better chance to win a fortune at Monte Carlo than you have by
putting up "margins" against Stock Exchange bulling and bearing,
and if you ruin yourself at Monte Carlo the proprietor will at
least refund enough of your money to pay your way home. The man who
"goes broke" on "margins" finds no relief at his service on the
Stock Exchange or among the brokers. There would not be so many
millionaires in this country if there were not so many fools ready
to throw their money away on margins.
A howl of condemnation is raised against horse-racing. Newspapers,
periodicals, politicians, enthusiasts, crusaders, and charlatans in
every walk of life, are encouraged to make a big noise. Horse-racing,
like bucketshopping, is an avenue for speculation--gambling--and it
keeps much money out of Wall Street. Fakirs, who are the tools of Wall
Street, collect from Wall Street for their services and at the same
time make moral or political capital of their zealousness in crusading
against such Wall Street gambling competition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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