so the new men come on, never knowing how many have gone irretrievably into the gulf before them until they have passed the fatal barrier of actual experience from which, in all but a very few cases, there are _vestigia nulla retrorsum_. The chances are overwhelmingly against the class of speculator with whom we are now dealing, for the following reasons: He has no money, as a rule, worthy of the name of capital, and consequently if he is caught deep in by any of the thousand and one accidents that may burst like a thunder-clap on the top of the markets any hour of any day in the week, he is unable to “see it out,” as the saying goes. Not being able to take his stock off the market, the settling day occurs before a sufficient recovery takes place, and he is done for. Where there is an exposure to such a catastrophe, that may happen at any moment and sweep away the entire fund, it is obvious that the game is not worth the shadow of a candle-end, to say nothing of the substance. Yet this is the common condition of the haphazard speculator. He stands at the edge of a precipice knowing that a puff of wind will blow him over, and that it may come at any moment. Supposing, for the sake of argument, we put such a possibility of accident out of the question, and imagine the haphazard speculator not to be exposed to the contingency of such a collapse, what do we find in the second rank of chances against him? In the first place his attention, as a rule, will be drawn to a stock by, we will say, its upward movement. He thinks to himself, “That stock has been getting up, why shouldn’t I have some of it?” and he buys, allured as are many others who wait to buy of those who have rigged the market up to a certain price, and then send the tip round to buy. The haphazard man thus assists probably the professional and systematic speculator to unload. He has got in at the top, and only sees his mistake by getting out at the bottom. Secondly, he very seldom pauses after having taken the decision to operate, owing to some special circumstance, to reflect upon the minor surroundings which are very necessary to keep in view. What are these? To buy on the eve of a settlement is a mistake, as a rule. In Stock Exchange speculation the exceptions are of the utmost importance, as for instance—When there has been a very sharp fall in the middle of an account, and it is known that the depression has been due to any considerable extent to bear operations, there will nearly always be a recovery on the eve of the account, caused by the bears taking their profits. The converse will also necessitate an operation of an exceptional nature, as when values have been driven up to a high point in an account by the bulls, to sell would be the line to take as the account approached, because the bulls might be reckoned on to take their profits in the same way. As a rule, however, prices tend to droop as the settlement approaches, owing to sales. The