Books

THE BULLS AND THE BEARS: HOW THE STOCK EXCHANGE WORKS.

DECEMBER 1967 JOHN HURD '21
Books
THE BULLS AND THE BEARS: HOW THE STOCK EXCHANGE WORKS.
DECEMBER 1967 JOHN HURD '21

By Adrian A. Paradis '34. New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1967. 94 pp. $3.50.

Instant Cleaner is better than any soap to clean greasy hands. It could be worth a million. But the inventer, George Bennett, has only $2000 and needs $10,000 to get started. A friendly banker, Mr. Taylor, helps him form a company, sell stock, and raise the necessary cash.

This expositional book about the New York Stock Market reads like a short novel. Mr. Paradis cleverly dramatizes the financial difficulties of the naive inventer who must learn about the formation of a corporation, the establishment of a charter, the appointment of directors, expansion into a large factory, and increased sales in supermarkets and department stores.

The inventer must "go public." He spruces himself up, flies with the knowledgeable Mr. Taylor to New York and Wall Street; gets introduced to an investment banker; learns about underwriting and trading; arranges for $300,700 in capital; and is informed about the Registration Statement and the SEC (Security and Exchange Commission in Washington).

Mr. Paradis' fundamental desire is not to enable a reader to make a fast buck but to explain what Wall Street encompasses, how the New York Stock Exchange operates as it trades daily millions of shares of stock, and what the 2200 brokers, officials, and clerks are doing in the apparent chaos of the trading floor, the size of a football field and five stories high.

You are instructed how to read a stock market report and how to invest money in stocks, how the big board is composed and works, and how to read the teleregister board (sample: AMR 2s70½ GM 60 X 1000s 50¼). Other chapters put you straight about the American Stock Exchange and Over the Counter, 100-share lots and odd lots, and a great many other things. Lest you go astray because of technical terms, the book has a glossary.

The New York Stock Exchange need no longer be the mystery some think it. If you are unable to join the 500,000 yearly spectators in the New York Stock Exchange gallery, the guided Paradis tour may be the next best thing. Perhaps even better. Chaos becomes order.

Mr. Hurd is saving money in the hope ofbuying one share of IBM.