Outside of this class, I found generally, when I asked one of the prominent speculators for his opinion of the market, that he gave me his true and candid opinion of the future of the market; and the probabilities are that, if even not acting on this opinion at that very moment, his general policy was based on such a forecast of the market’s condition. The strength of the successful speculator lies in his observing the important principle set forth by Mr. Crump on page 60 of his work. “Speculators never set sufficient value on the importance of avoiding a loss—they think only of the profits.” As it is with our money affairs when we say, “_Look after the pence; the pounds will take care of themselves_,” so it is with speculation. Look after the losses; the profits will take care of themselves. Never refuse a profit, is a golden motto for speculators, which unhappily few of them, in their greediness, have the courage to adopt. The observance of this rule is the main cause of the success of the best speculators, and the non-observance is the cause of failure of even their confidential friends. Very few fortunes have been made in Wall Street at one stroke. Fortunes which were made in that way were generally lost again in a very short time. Most of the long, lasting, and solid fortunes were made by a gradual accumulation of profits extending over a great many years. The beginnings of these were sometimes quite small, and, as the capital increased, larger operations were entered into.[1] Another cause of failure is the habit of taking larger risks than the means of speculators warrant. They naturally become nervous when they begin to see their capital dwindle away, and then begin, what is called in Wall Street, to “chip out.” Now this is the curse of the speculator, not so much on account of the loss, as on account of the demoralization it will lead him into. Of course, big losses ought to be avoided, but at the same time well based and matured operations may sometimes be temporarily upset by a temporary manipulation of the market, or by some accidents which however right themselves in a few days, and cannot seriously interrupt the natural course of the market. In such a market a nervous speculator may “chip out” a fortune, and still be right in his views as to general conditions. I think it is better to make one loss of 5 per cent. or so, when you know you are wrong, than to make three or five losses of 1 per cent. each, when you do not know whether you are wrong or right, and in this connection Mr. Crump has very much undervalued the importance of options. Options, if considered in their proper light, are the most important adjunct to speculation. They will enable the speculator to bridge over many difficulties, and furnish capital to speculators who know how to use them.