Part 2

In the final analysis the following essentials should be constantly borne in mind: _The stock and grain markets are always capable of playing new tricks on you--of doing things you never dreamed of._ Who, for example, could have imagined that with a world shortage of wheat, that staple commodity would be selling in February at considerably under ninety cents a bushel--nearly as low as corn!

Another important thing always to remember is, _not to buy more stocks than you can pay for, or margin far below the lowest point you think they can possibly reach. The extra profits to be derived from over-trading are scarcely ever worth the risk incurred._

To sum up the whole situation in a word, those who would make money speculating in the stock market should first understand that it requires as much caution and business acumen as any other money-making enterprise, plus some knowledge of the psychological handicaps; also plus the rare faculty of maintaining a complete mastery over one’s impulses, emotions and ambitions under the most heroic tests of human endurance. All speculations, and even the most conservative investments, have at least some slight element of risk; all lines of business are more or less a gamble; marriage is a gamble; political preferment is a gamble; in fact nearly everything in life, including our very existence, is an uncertainty; yet people are not thereby discouraged from entering into any and all of these ventures. Those who look only for certainties have far to search and little to find in this world.

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Transcriber’s Notes:

Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

The following change was made:

p. 14: be inserted (to be the)