were always changing.

 

That is how I first came to be interested in the behaviour of prices.

 

I had a very good memory for figures. I could remember in detail how the prices

had acted on the previous day, just before they went up or down. My fondness for

mental arithmetic came in very handy.

 

I noticed that in advances as well as declines, stock prices were apt to show

certain habits, so to speak. There was no end of parallel cases and these made

precedents to guide me. I was only fourteen, but after I had taken hundreds of

observations in my mind I found myself testing their accuracy, comparing the

behaviour of stocks to-day with other days. It was not long before I was

anticipating movements in prices. My only guide, as I say, was their past

performances. I carried the “dope sheets” in my mind. I looked for stock prices

to run on form. I had “clocked” them. You know what I mean.

 

You can spot, for instance, where the buying is only a trifle better than the

selling. A battle goes on in the stock market and the tape is your telescope.

You can depend upon it seven out of ten cases.