Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1884 — “Bulls” and “Bears.” [ARTICLE]

“Bulls” and “Bears.”

The means used to/'bull” and “bear,” or raise and depress the prices of stocks, grain, provisions, etc., are innumerable, varying with the needs of the times, but influenced much more by the combinations of capitalists and brokers. The “bulls” magnify every ciroumstance fa-. vorabic to the appreciation of the stocks they hold or have agreed to take at a given time, while those who have contracted to deliver susfa stocks, or who for any reason buy, do all in their power to depreciate them, and are therefore nicknamed “bears.” Any one who has ever witnessed a bull aud bear fight will not question the appropriateness of these terms as applied to the combatants in the exciting wars among the kings of the stock board. The bulls struggle to toss the stocks higher; the bears squeeze and tug to ’force the prices down. The former resort to all kinds of expedients to induce small holders to cling fast to their stocks instead of putting them on the market. They persuade them by direct appeals, or by circulating encouraging reports, tliat these stocks are bound to rise rapidly in value; and they often combine to buy up the stock of the few who persist in selling, so as to “corner” the market. Not content with fair means, they, sometimes enter into combinations with one another, and employ third parties to buy and sell stocks of the same description on ’Change, in such a way as to create the impression that there is a greater demand for them than there really is, when in fact the s&les are never consumated, or merely amount to an exchange among themselves. Often, when neither the foreign nor home news was favorable to their purposes, false reports have been telegraphed through the country by interested parties, to affect the stock board. Similar methods are pursued on boards of trade. ~•; —: - ■ —