“If you take the ordinary broker’s advice, there is no fear of your making money—according to Timkins.”
“Bother Timkins!”
“People make money selling stocks, not buying them.”
“You mean short selling?” asked Uncle becoming interested.
“Either short selling or promoting, and there is really not much difference.”
“I never could get at the bottom of this short selling, do tell me what it means?”
“I have told you often,” Uncle said to his wife. “No woman has ever been able to understand it and not overly many men. In ordinary commerce a man buys and sells later: the short seller in the market, or the bear, sells first and buys afterwards: it is the simple reversal of a simple process.”
“But it’s gambling, I’ve read so in the papers,” protested Mumsie.
“So are lots of things; in fact, it is a rare process in this world that is not a gamble,” replied Mr. Bang with heat. “I know the whole argument, but let me say that anyone who buys a stock because he thinks it will go up is as much of a gambler as he who sells it because he thinks it will go down. In England, where the fundamentals are sought for, and the people are not so much humbugged as they are here, the prejudice against ‘selling a bear’ in the market is unknown.”
“You’re joking.”