Book Review: Wall Street and the Wilds

日期:2013/12/30

Wall Street and the Wilds by A.W. Dimock， 1915， contains the sage of the rise and fall and rise and fall of a Wall Street gold trader， options seller， stock manipulator， developer of the clearing house， pool operator， Steamship promoter， real estate developer of Elizabeth， New Jersey， telegraph line builders， railroad builder， hunter， photographer and naturalist from 1850 to 1915.

It includes chapters on black Friday， the day that the gold bulls broke the US Treasury in 1870， the effect on prices of the civil way， the way manipulations were carried out in those days， the relation of the flexions to financiers in those days (not much different from today)， systems for profiting in gold， the legal system in those days (fees of a million dollars for routine cases were common even in 1880， the early developments of photography in the wilds， hair raising tails of wars between the Native Americans and the US military， pinpoint shooting， advanced fly casting techniques， and much more.



Everything talked about is totally a propos of current techniques in Wall Street. Dimock was a minister's son born in 1840 who went to Andover and came to Wall Street at 15 and got his start scalping odd lots in insurance stocks. He developed a system of selling gold every 1/8 up and buying it every eight down. He became the Little Napoleon of Wall Street and dominated the gold exchange the way the big grain companies dominate the grain market today， using some of the same techniques. He made so much money that it was easy come， easy go， and he lost it all by guaranteeing the purchase of friends， defrauding by the Goulds during Black Friday， and finally in the crash of 1873.

The book is compelling， and instructive and a great history of 19th century stock and commodity markets， very much akin and resonant of today. It's highly instructive. I'll quote from some of the more resonant and sagacious passages:

All day I stood there， buying and selling， with a stubby pencil. Always my bids and offers were a quarter percent apart. Thus， if I had just bought five thousand at a premium of fifty and 1/8 percent， (gold was quoted at around $16.50 an ounce as a premium to dollars)， I would big fifty for five more， and offer to sell five at fifty and one quarter. Every purchase was balanced. The profits of my machine were so great at the end of the year that I could withstand a fall of 25% in the price of gold.

There is a fascinating account of the lending and borrowing business and the treachery and integrity of various operators very resonant of today.