Do "Big Men" Put the Market Up or Down?
Question:
Is it not a fact that some of the "big men" get together from time to time and determine to put the market up or down so as to catch profits going and coming?
Answer:
As to "big men" meeting to determine the course of the stock market, that is one of those legends and superstitions inherited from olden days many years ago when conditions were totally different from what they are now, and when the scale of things and morals, too, were different, which it is hard to kill.
The fluctuations of the stock market represent the views, the judgment and the conditions of thousands of people all over the country, and indeed, in normal times, all over the world.
The current which sends market prices up or down is far stronger than any man or combination of men. It would sweep any man or men aside like driftwood if they stood in its way or attempted to deflect it.
True, men at times discern the approach of that current from afar offDo "big men" put the market up or down? and back their judgment singly, or sometimes even a few of them together, as to its time and effect. They may hasten a little the advent of that current, they may a little intensify its effect, but they have not the power to either unloosen it or stop it.
If by the term "big men" you mean Bankers, let me add that a genuine Banker has very little time and, generally speaking, equally little inclination to speculate, and that his very training and occupation unfit him to be a successful speculator.
The Banker's training is to judge intrinsic values, his outlook must be broad and comprehensive, his plans must take account of the longer future. The Speculator's business is to discern and take advantage of immediate situations, his outlook is for tomorrow, or anyhow for the early future; he must indeed be able at times to disregard intrinsic values.