Digital Book :
SPECULATION AS A FINE ART
The bible for successful speculators as written by a successful speculator.
By Dickson G.Watts
Published in 1880

FOREWARD

You have opened the tomb of a great man. His name, his hooks and his exchange have almost vanished. Dickson G.Watts, author of SPECULATION AS A FINE ART and THOUGHTS ON LIFE, was a charter member and President of the New York Cotton Exchange.

The revival of Edwin Lefevre's book, REMINISCENCES OF A STOCK OPERATOR, has renewed interest in the book because "Old Dickson" wrote the bible for successful speculators. Reference is constantly made of SPECULATION AS A FINE ART, yet there is not a copy in the Library of Congress or The New York Public Library. This was one of the few books written on speculation by a successful speculator.

Dickson G. Watts was President of The New York Cotton Exchange between 1878 and 1880. This exchange was one of the greatest arenas of speculation in America. Seats sold for as much as $45,000. At this writing, the bid is $770 and the trading ring is deserted. The epitaph of The Cotton Exchange is that our Great Society of Free Enterprise supports the price of cotton above the world market. Speculators cannot out-bid The Government, so the price cannot go up.The price cannot drop because Uncle Sam has unlimited funds. There is a remote possibility that the cotton producers will grow cotton faster than the Government can print money and the market will be free again.

Pandora's Box is open. You have parts of THOUGHTS ON LIFE and SPECULATION AS A FINE ART in your hands.

Did "Old Dickson" originate the quotations and rules of speculation or did he just pass them along? At any rate, he used the knowledge to good advantage. Can you?

J.R.L. 3/16/65