Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

by Edwin Lefèvre

He was himself squeezed by Commodore Vanderbilt in Erie, and when old Drew begged for mercy the Commodore grimly quoted the Great Bear's own deathless distich: He that sells what isn't his'n Must buy it back or go to pris'n.

Vision without money means heartaches; with money, it means achievement; and that means power; and that means money; and that means achievement; and so on, over and over and over.

a man could do a great deal to arouse interest in any stock with four millions in cash.

there was only one way to do it, and that was, of course, to sell on the way down and without first trying to put up the price,

on the way down I could reach those buyers who always argue that a stock is cheap when it sells fifteen or twenty points below the top of the movement, particularly when that top is a matter of recent history.

The overwhelming majority of the bullish articles printed on the authority of unnamed directors or insiders convey unreliable and misleading impressions to the public.

I do not recall an instance when a bear raid caused a stock to decline extensively.

When a stock keeps on going down you can bet there is something wrong with it, either with the market for it or with the company.

the only time a bear can make big money selling a stock is when that stock is too high.

The old price was $1 per pound package and hard to move. At 25 cents for a quarter-pound box it might go better; and perhaps at 27 or 30 cents. Why does not the public ask why the stock is made easy to buy?

When a stock is going up no elaborate explanation is needed as to why it is going up. It takes continuous buying to make a stock keep on going up. As long as it does so, with only small and natural reactions from time to time, it is a pretty safe proposition to trail along with it.

if after a long steady rise a stock turns and gradually begins to go down, with only occasional small rallies, it is obvious that the line of least resistance has changed from upward to downward.

There are probably very good reasons why it should go down, but these reasons are known only to a few people who either keep those reasons to themselves, or else actually tell the public that the stock is cheap. The nature of the game as it is played is such that the p...