Possibilities Of Profit

What are the possibilities of profit in stock speculation? That question

is frequently asked but it is difficult to answer. James R. Keene is

quoted as having said: "Many men come to Wall Street to get rich; they

always go broke. Others come to Wall Street to operate intelligently for

fair returns; they usually get rich."



While it is true that nearly all stock traders who try to make unusually

large profi s in a very short time in stock trading lose, yet unusual

profits can be made if you exercise good judgment and have patience.



Roger W. Babson, in his book entitled, "Business Barometers," speaks of

the possibilities of profit in language that would be considered greatly

exaggerated if used by a promoter, and yet he is extremely conservative

in his advice to traders. He advises never to buy on margin, never to

sell short, and staying out of the market entirely, neither buying or

selling, for a great part of the time. Here is a quotation from his

book, which follows a detailed statement of an investment of $2,500 over

a period of fifty years:



"The preceding example shows that $2,500 conservatively invested in

a few standard stocks about fifty years ago would today amount to

over $1,000,000. These are not only strictly investment stocks, but

are also stocks which have fluctuated comparatively little in price.

This, moreover was possible by giving orders to buy or sell only

once in every three or four years.



"If other stocks which were not dividend payers and which have shown

greater fluctuations were purchased, and advantage had been taken of

the intermediate fluctuations, the $2,500 would have amounted to

much larger figures. By intermediate movements is not meant the

weekly movements which the ordinary professional operator notes, but

the broader movements extending over many months and possibly a year

or more. Nevertheless, these broader intermediate movements should

not be noticed by a conservative investor, as it is possible to

correctly diagnose only the movements extending over longer periods.

Many brokers believe that it is possible to discern also these

intermediate movements of six or eight months; and if so, the

following results would have been possible.



"$5,000 invested in 'St. Paul' in 1870 would

amount to over $10,000,000 today.



"$5,000 invested in 'Union Pacific' in 1870

would amount to over $15,000,000 today.



"$5,000 invested in 'Central of New Jersey'

would amount to over $30,000,000 today.



"$5,000 invested in 'Northern Pacific' would

amount to over $50,000,000 today.



"These figures are not based on the supposition that the investor

was selling at the top of every rise or buying at the bottom of

every decline, but that the transactions were made at average 'high'

and average 'low' prices based upon the study of technical

conditions."



If such large profits can be made by following Babson's advice, of

course larger profits can be made by buying on conservative margin and

by selling short when all the conditions are in favor of it.



While there are possibilities of making extremely large profits without

taking great risks, by those who are patient and exercise good judgment,

one should be satisfied with a small profit, if it is the result of

great care, in an effort to eliminate risk. Of course, you can afford to

take a much greater risk with a small part of your speculative fund than

you can with all of it. The less money you have with which to speculate,

the more careful you should be. Some people cannot afford to speculate

at all. They should invest their funds in good, safe investments, but

this book is written for speculators.



Careful stock speculation carried on regularly over a period of years,

we believe brings larger returns than almost anything else, and in the

next chapter we tell you something about where to get information to

guide you.