To “put up a margin” signifies to deposit with your brokers a sum of money, as a rule 10 per cent. of the par value of a stock, as security against failure to meet losses.
To buy “long” is the equivalent of our term “bull.”
To sell “short” is the equivalent of our term “bear.”
To “corner” a stock is to purchase all that can be obtained and make it very scarce, and also more than can be obtained, in order to run the price up, and “roast,” as the saying is in the London market, the speculative sellers; but the “cornering,” as we understand the meaning of the word, would seem to apply more to the speculative sellers who are “roasted” than to the stock which may be selected for the operation.
“Clique,” “pool,” or “ring” are less expressive, and in consequence of other associations, are less happy terms than our equivalent syndicate, which in English financial circles can be mistaken for nothing else than a combination of speculative capitalists which is formed either to divide a loan amongst them and unload their portions upon the public as opportunities may occur, or to “wash” a stock up and down, getting what they can out of the unwary public during the operation. Gold “rings” on the other side of the Atlantic, and foreign loan syndicates on this, must by this time almost have had their day. Each new era of prosperity requires and generally witnesses a new set of ingenious devices to throw dust in the eyes of investors, while the new race of Autolycuses are going through all the old tricks.
In London, settlements take place twice a month, but in Broad Street sales are made for either cash or “regular.” In the first case purchases have to be settled the same day before 2.15 P.M., and in the second on the following day. Time contracts correspond to our time bargains, and have about the same conditions attaching to them, with the exception that the rate of interest charged, answering to our contango, is generally 6 per cent., unless otherwise stipulated, and is not influenced by a varying standard such as our Bank rate.
The word “shrinkage” for depreciation is a neat term with which the small catalogue may be euphoniously terminated.