The most important thing in golf, and the hardest thing to learn, is to keep the eye on the ball while in the act of hitting it; and the hardest thing to learn in stock trading is to keep the eye _off_ the market, hold firmly and patiently to good resolutions, _and not try to get rich too quickly_. Both look to be easy, but-- [Illustration] Reducing the whole problem to its simplest form, the stock exchange is a well-organized and honestly conducted market-place where anyone may sell or buy investment or speculative securities, at whatever price anybody else is willing to pay or accept for them. There is no more mysticism about the exchange itself than there is about a book auction room, or any other auction room where articles of merchandise are offered at an upset price, or auctioned off to the highest bidder. A man who buys stocks or bonds for investment is not gambling with anybody that they will go up or down; he buys them because he wants to invest his money and get interest or dividends on it. If a stock bought at $100 a share, paying seven per cent. annually in dividends, should increase in market value to $150 it is obvious that the rate of interest on the total capital is correspondingly reduced, and that whereas his original $10,000 brought a return of seven per cent., the capital of $15,000 is earning a net return of only four and six tenths per cent. Under such conditions it is oftentimes wise to sell out and reinvest the money in other securities which bring a larger net return; or if stocks in general are too high, put the money in the bank and wait for lower prices. The $5000 gain in capital will surely more than cover interest on the original $10,000 investment during the time one has to wait for good buying opportunities.