The Facts About Speculation

Trying to call every market turn? Tempted to act on impulse rather than fact when investing your money? A major mistake made by most investors and traders today is to try to call every market turn - a tactic that has very little chance of success. Not only is there a tendency to lose perspective in attempting to call every trend reversal, but also we invariably exhaust our objectivity and ultimately lose touch with the markets. The Facts About Speculation is a series of warnings about the dangers of speculation by the unprepared investor. Long considered an investment classic, Thomas Gibson demonstrates superior skill in analyzing, examining and offering the most important influences on stock prices. Concentrating on human errors in speculation, he maintains that excesses of emotion are principally responsible for a majority of speculative investment decisions. THOMAS GIBSON was a prolific writer on investment and speculation, having authored several books to his credit. His skill lay in analyzing, examining, and giving his readers, in an accessible form, all the principal factors in connection with speculation and stock prices.

The Department of Speculative Facts connects two seemingly contradictory approaches: Speculation which attempts to think and act beyond existing knowledge and structures, and fact-checkers in search for a solid consensus on which our reality can be built. When stretching knowledge and speculating with fiction, what sense of responsibility is needed in times of democratized opinions and fake news? Learning from the other SF?Science Fiction?we think of speculation through facts, and facts through speculation, to situate truth culturally.00The backbone of this book is an e-mail exchange between two fact-checkers from the New York Times Magazine, which we handed over to artists to re-write, re-perform, and re-design. The publication includes the original letters, workshop scripts, as well as additional texts by philosophers, journalists, writers, and artists looking at new social contracts, with which we can anchor ourselves in the present.

DESCRIPTIONThis book is written for the purpose of giving the reader some ideas of the fundamental principles that guide us when we select stocks to buy for our clients, but these principles are valuable to every person who trades in listed stocks or in any other kind of speculative stocks.First of all, I want you to get a clear conception of the meaning of the word speculation, which is explained in the chapter two. Our purpose is to protect you against losses as well as to enable you to make profits, and it is very important that you understand how to provide for safety in your speculating.It is a well known fact that there are tremendous losses in stock speculation, but we claim that almost all of these losses would be avoided if all speculators were guided by the principles expounded in this book."What" and "When" are two very important words in stock speculation, and we cannot urge upon you too strongly to study carefully Chapters four to eight. Chapters nine to fourteen tell you much about the influences that affect the prices of stocks, a knowledge of which should also be a guide to you in making your selections.Perhaps the most important chapter in the entire book is twenty five, on Market Information. A careful reading of this chapter should convince you that much of the prevailing information about the stock market is misleading. That fact alone accounts for many of the losses in stock speculation. It has been our aim to state all facts briefly. The entire book is not long, and it will not require much of your time to read it through carefully. We are sure you will get many ideas from it that will help you.

The bible for successful speculators, written on speculation, by a successful speculator. This is a combination of what is speculation, along with some thoughts on life, business, society, and language. An excellent thought starter. Also contains Watts classic "Thoughts on Life" - short aphorisms of timeless wisdom. The orignal source for classic market wisdom such as: "Make your theories fit your facts, not your facts your theories." "Look after the principal; the interest will look after itself." "If a speculation keeps you awake at night, sell down to the sleeping point" This book is a must for any reader of classic investing wisdom.

Written by the Wall Street legend who founded one of the first mutual funds, this classic presents a complete review of the tools of the speculator and offers a full education on a variety of securities — especially bonds, stocks, and derivatives. Readers learn details of technical and fundamental analysis, shortselling, margins, and arbitrage.

This is an early 20th century work on Wall Street and the stock market, particularly speculation. From the intro: "The public attitude toward speculation is generally hostile. Even those who venture frequently are prone to speak discouragingly of speculative possibilities, and to point warningly to the fact that an overwhelming majority of speculative commitments result in loss, while those who venture not at all, and consequently are incompetent to judge, dismiss the subject with the statement that marginal trading is gambling, pure and simple, and is therefore pernicious. Those who enter into the subject a little farther, and attempt to adduce more specific argument against speculative possibilities, lay stress upon the statement that manipulation, trickery and wholesale deception render it impossible for the outsider to enter the field safely or intelligently. These statements, usually unsupported, and frequently insupportable, are accepted by the prejudiced multitude as gospel truth, without any attempt being made to examine their foundation or correctness. So far as the question of gambling is concerned, it would be entering a very large field to attempt to define just what is and what is not gambling. The idea that the man who buys a certain stock outright invests, while he who buys on margin gambles, is a popular fallacy. The speculator purchases in the hope of an advance, and if two purchases are made for parallel reasons, one for cash, and one on margins, both purchases are speculative. That speculative fluctuations are largely used as a basis for gambling operations, is unquestionably true, and possibly an acceptable dividing line may be drawn on the following hypothesis: gambling, in the general acceptance of the term, is founded upon blind chance, the equal possibility of certain events occurring or not occurring; this is modified in some cases by the exercise of superior skill in such games as admit of skill; but fundamentally, gambling is wholly dependent upon the equal chances of two or more opposed individuals."