Speculating at all is associated, in the minds of nearly all people, with fine sunshiny weather, and a settled state of the political atmospheres of one’s own and neighbouring states. The time to speculate for the fall is when growling despatches are being exchanged between nations whose prosperity has reached a zenith where nothing more is to be had, except by quarreling; when the exchanges are adversing, and there is a drain of gold setting in and the biting winds and sleet of chill October fill everybody with pessimist views; when the reports of shipwrecks and hurricanes at sea fill the minds of Oriental merchants with alarm for the safety of their galleons, and there is an uneasy general impression creeping over the public mind that it is perhaps prudent, under the circumstances, to hold less in securities, and to have a larger balance at the bank. Yet, when the very air seems to whisper coming difficulties and disturbances, and the time is ripe for speculating for the fall, such is the weakness of the human character that the opportunity presented is seldom discerned until the return of sunshine, and the blowing over of the storm has shown the inutility of being wise after the event. [Sidenote: OPTIONS.] [Sidenote: THE “PUT AND CALL” OPTION.] Speculation by “options” is of all methods of speculating the most prudent, as it is the most sensible, for all parties concerned. It resembles in some degree the lottery-ticket mode of gambling. The indefinite mischief that is caused by speculation which allows the operator to incur unlimited risk on credit is prevented by the system of options, inasmuch as a fixed payment must be made by the speculator at the time the option account is opened. There are three kinds of options. First, is the “put and call,”[15] which means to take or to deliver stock at a fixed price at a future date, for which a certain sum is paid on the day the bargain is entered into. [Sidenote: THE “PUT” OPTION.] The second is the “put,” which means the option of delivering a specified amount of stock at a fixed date, the price and the day of delivery being agreed upon at the time the money is paid. [Sidenote: THE “CALL” OPTION.] The third description of option is the “call,” which means an operation exactly the opposite of the “put.” It is the option of claiming a specified amount of stock at a future fixed date, such date, together with the price, to be agreed upon at the time the option money is paid. The sum of money that is paid for options fluctuates in sympathy with the changes in the value of public securities, and also depends upon the amount of business doing. An option may be done from day to day, or from account to account. The option money is paid by the principal to the broker at the time the transaction is effected. When the option expires, the person who has paid the money declares whether he buys, sells, or does nothing.[16]