1888 The Art Of Investing John Hume 1st Ed. Wall Street Stock Market Rare
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:899650 | Binding: Hardcover |
| Special Attributes: 1st Edition |
The Art of Investing
A New York Broker (John F. Hume)
1888, first edition
A very good copy with some wear to the spine ends and corners. The gilt remains fairly bright, the pages are clean and the binding is tight.
A nice solid copy of this rare classic.
So here’s some of that 19th-century advice for today’s investors.
"If it is difficult to make money — a proposition about which there will not be much diversity of opinion — i...t is in most cases even more difficult to keep it profitably employed. Men of prudence and skill in the acquisition of capital often show astonishing recklessness in the disposition they make of it. The strangest caprices take possession of them when it comes to the critical moment that calls for a choice of investments. And as riches are always clothed with folded wings ready to expand at the most unlooked-for exigencies, it is not much wonder that they frequently take to the winds and pass beyond recall."
"The lesson of such cases is obvious enough. It is that no one should ever buy a moneyed undertaking without having first carefully read it. This may seem like an unnecessary warning; but in truth it is a most material one. Thousands and thousands of dollars have been lost by the neglect of this simple precaution. “I didn’t read the paper” is the explanation that has again and again and again been offered when time has disclosed a different investment from the one intended to be paid for."
"In addition to their money’s worth, they have endeavored to get something for nothing, with the result most generally of getting nothing for something. It is remarkable how blind are people, ordinarily sagacious enough to make money, to the fact that property can not pay a revenue beyond its producing capacity."
"The first and main thing to be studied is safety. And yet there is such a thing as going too far in the matter of prudence. The investor may pay too dearly for safety. There are securities which, compared with others that are to be had, sell at prices much above their real value. The reason is that everybody knows them to be good, and investors who don’t want to take the trouble to investigate, or are afraid to trust both their own judgments and the counsels of their friends, are willing to pay extra prices for them. But there are plenty of others that may be had at lower figures, which are just as good."
"Two common and often fatal mistakes should be avoided. One is in relying solely upon the advice of a broker. No one competent to form an opinion for himself should put his pecuniary interests unreservedly in the keeping of another. Such absolute confidence invites betrayal. By far the greater number of losses to investors has been in securities purchased exclusively on the recommendation of interested commission men."
"The other mistake is in giving a preference to “listed” securities. Many persons seem to think that stocks and bonds must have a value if they are quoted at some stock exchange, forgetting how many “fancies” have been ballooned until they have burst at such places. On the contrary, such a position is likely to expose them to manipulation for purely speculative purposes. Stock-exchange quotations, as a rule, are unsafe guides to buyers. They represent not so much the value of the property as the pitch of speculation at the time. When securities are converted into foot-balls for gamblers to play with, they are pretty certain to be either too high or too low. The only advantage they can have is a readier marketability in case of an urgent need to sell; but it is at the times when such need is likely to exist that they are pretty certain to be at the lowest point. No speculative help can long take the place of real value. Securities, in the long run, must stand upon their merits, and purchasers have merely to follow business principles as taught by the canons of common sense."
"Buy low, sell high. Be greedy when other’s are fearful. The mantra is as old as the hills and still ignored."
"There are opportunities to be looked for as well as pitfalls to be shunned. It is during periods and seasons of depression, when securities are forced upon the market, often to be sacrificed — and they are certain to come if waited for long enough — that the shrewd investor finds his richest harvest. That, however, can not be said of the ordinary investor. He usually buys when securities are up and confidence is unimpaired, and becoming frightened as market values go down sells when they are at the bottom, and holds his money to reinvest in something else no better, and probably not as good, when the tide has turned. As a rule, the best time to invest is when others are unloading. In money matters it is never safe to follow “the crowd.” Nor is it safe (which, however, is little more than the expression of the same idea in another form) to purchase a security when it is on the “boom.”
"A peculiarity of our money market, conservative as it is popularly supposed to be, is that it is constantly changing its favorites. Its offerings come in waves. Its dealings at one time may be chiefly in railways, at another in municipal obligations, and at another the excitement may run to mining shares or mortgages on ranches and real estate. For the time all professional brokers and bond and share sellers urge their customers to adopt the popular issue, of which, as the result of the increased demand, there is almost certain to be an excessive if not fraudulent production. To yield to the pressure at such a time is always risky. Old and tried securities, like old friends, are likely to be the truest and best."
"Another thing of a precautionary nature it is well enough for the investor to do, and that is to scatter his purchases. The old adage about putting all the eggs in one basket applies with peculiar force to investments. The tendency…is to make up their minds in favor of a single line of securities and put everything there. Of course, a failure in that quarter is particularly disastrous… It is well enough to scatter in kind as well as in locality."
"Investors are altogether too prone to accept present realizations as evidences of future profits. It may be taken as a rule that, in this age of plentiful money, no legitimate business that is open to public competition will long pay exceptionally well. The greater its earnings at first, the stronger will be the competition in the end."
"To buy at a low figure and sell at a higher, or to sell at a high figure and afterward buy at a lower, seems such a simple operation! It almost looks as if you could go into Wall Street and pick up money from the sidewalks. Those who have made the attempt, however, have found the practice very different from the theory. When the cleverest operators, the trained habitues of the street, so often make shipwreck, what hope is there for the inexperienced? A loss, however, is usually incurred before the real difficulties of the situation are realized, and then…out of sheer desperation or from the fascination that attends the game, the determination to try another chance, and in that way good money is thrown after bad until ruin is reached… They lose because they want to make money, are not particular how they make it, and flatter themselves that they are sharp enough to win where others have failed. They are their own victims."
A New York Broker (John F. Hume)
1888, first edition
A very good copy with some wear to the spine ends and corners. The gilt remains fairly bright, the pages are clean and the binding is tight.
A nice solid copy of this rare classic.
So here’s some of that 19th-century advice for today’s investors.
"If it is difficult to make money — a proposition about which there will not be much diversity of opinion — i...t is in most cases even more difficult to keep it profitably employed. Men of prudence and skill in the acquisition of capital often show astonishing recklessness in the disposition they make of it. The strangest caprices take possession of them when it comes to the critical moment that calls for a choice of investments. And as riches are always clothed with folded wings ready to expand at the most unlooked-for exigencies, it is not much wonder that they frequently take to the winds and pass beyond recall."
"The lesson of such cases is obvious enough. It is that no one should ever buy a moneyed undertaking without having first carefully read it. This may seem like an unnecessary warning; but in truth it is a most material one. Thousands and thousands of dollars have been lost by the neglect of this simple precaution. “I didn’t read the paper” is the explanation that has again and again and again been offered when time has disclosed a different investment from the one intended to be paid for."
"In addition to their money’s worth, they have endeavored to get something for nothing, with the result most generally of getting nothing for something. It is remarkable how blind are people, ordinarily sagacious enough to make money, to the fact that property can not pay a revenue beyond its producing capacity."
"The first and main thing to be studied is safety. And yet there is such a thing as going too far in the matter of prudence. The investor may pay too dearly for safety. There are securities which, compared with others that are to be had, sell at prices much above their real value. The reason is that everybody knows them to be good, and investors who don’t want to take the trouble to investigate, or are afraid to trust both their own judgments and the counsels of their friends, are willing to pay extra prices for them. But there are plenty of others that may be had at lower figures, which are just as good."
"Two common and often fatal mistakes should be avoided. One is in relying solely upon the advice of a broker. No one competent to form an opinion for himself should put his pecuniary interests unreservedly in the keeping of another. Such absolute confidence invites betrayal. By far the greater number of losses to investors has been in securities purchased exclusively on the recommendation of interested commission men."
"The other mistake is in giving a preference to “listed” securities. Many persons seem to think that stocks and bonds must have a value if they are quoted at some stock exchange, forgetting how many “fancies” have been ballooned until they have burst at such places. On the contrary, such a position is likely to expose them to manipulation for purely speculative purposes. Stock-exchange quotations, as a rule, are unsafe guides to buyers. They represent not so much the value of the property as the pitch of speculation at the time. When securities are converted into foot-balls for gamblers to play with, they are pretty certain to be either too high or too low. The only advantage they can have is a readier marketability in case of an urgent need to sell; but it is at the times when such need is likely to exist that they are pretty certain to be at the lowest point. No speculative help can long take the place of real value. Securities, in the long run, must stand upon their merits, and purchasers have merely to follow business principles as taught by the canons of common sense."
"Buy low, sell high. Be greedy when other’s are fearful. The mantra is as old as the hills and still ignored."
"There are opportunities to be looked for as well as pitfalls to be shunned. It is during periods and seasons of depression, when securities are forced upon the market, often to be sacrificed — and they are certain to come if waited for long enough — that the shrewd investor finds his richest harvest. That, however, can not be said of the ordinary investor. He usually buys when securities are up and confidence is unimpaired, and becoming frightened as market values go down sells when they are at the bottom, and holds his money to reinvest in something else no better, and probably not as good, when the tide has turned. As a rule, the best time to invest is when others are unloading. In money matters it is never safe to follow “the crowd.” Nor is it safe (which, however, is little more than the expression of the same idea in another form) to purchase a security when it is on the “boom.”
"A peculiarity of our money market, conservative as it is popularly supposed to be, is that it is constantly changing its favorites. Its offerings come in waves. Its dealings at one time may be chiefly in railways, at another in municipal obligations, and at another the excitement may run to mining shares or mortgages on ranches and real estate. For the time all professional brokers and bond and share sellers urge their customers to adopt the popular issue, of which, as the result of the increased demand, there is almost certain to be an excessive if not fraudulent production. To yield to the pressure at such a time is always risky. Old and tried securities, like old friends, are likely to be the truest and best."
"Another thing of a precautionary nature it is well enough for the investor to do, and that is to scatter his purchases. The old adage about putting all the eggs in one basket applies with peculiar force to investments. The tendency…is to make up their minds in favor of a single line of securities and put everything there. Of course, a failure in that quarter is particularly disastrous… It is well enough to scatter in kind as well as in locality."
"Investors are altogether too prone to accept present realizations as evidences of future profits. It may be taken as a rule that, in this age of plentiful money, no legitimate business that is open to public competition will long pay exceptionally well. The greater its earnings at first, the stronger will be the competition in the end."
"To buy at a low figure and sell at a higher, or to sell at a high figure and afterward buy at a lower, seems such a simple operation! It almost looks as if you could go into Wall Street and pick up money from the sidewalks. Those who have made the attempt, however, have found the practice very different from the theory. When the cleverest operators, the trained habitues of the street, so often make shipwreck, what hope is there for the inexperienced? A loss, however, is usually incurred before the real difficulties of the situation are realized, and then…out of sheer desperation or from the fascination that attends the game, the determination to try another chance, and in that way good money is thrown after bad until ruin is reached… They lose because they want to make money, are not particular how they make it, and flatter themselves that they are sharp enough to win where others have failed. They are their own victims."
