The Psychology of Speculation. English-only reading by default; switch among English, Chinese, and Spanish, or compare languages side by side.
This chapter examines A NEW KNIGHT-ERRANT IN SPECULATION, using the author’s early-twentieth-century investment framework to explain how investors were expected to judge security quality, income, risk, and market conditions. It opens from the chapter’s own discussion: Another incident occurs to me, which is so typical of those who become infected with the stock market microbe that it seems worth relating. A few years ago a young friend appealed to me for advice as to the best method of investing about $10,000 surplus which he had taken out of his business the previous year with a view to placing it out at interest.
Readers studying financial history, investment education, and the chapter’s specific subject—speculative infection, thin margins, bargain day—will get the most from this section. It is not suitable as a modern trading or investment checklist.
Read this chapter as historical investment education. The market rules, disclosure practices, securities, commissions, interest-rate conditions, and investor protections around speculative infection, thin margins, bargain day may differ sharply from modern markets.