WOMAN GAMBLERS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 December 1928, Page 8

WOMAN GAMBLERS

UPSET WALL STREET,

(Hv W. K. HILLOCK, in the l.ondon

“ Daily .Mail.”,

XEW YORK. October 2D

The sound of the ticker is a siren siilie in llu* ears of American women. They have entered the stock market in such Omasa mis that some conservative linanriors attribute the present strange antics of the daily sessions l/i their inexperienced operation. When call money rises from 7 to !) per cent, without havin'' any inllnonee on speculation. bankers throw up their bands in dismay.

As one leading; Wall Street banker remarked in conversat ion : "The women are conductin'.*; tinanee in an imaginary world of their own. Many of them know not lime of tin* stocks they buy. They all expect On* mark'd to rise, and think their brokers are very unkind when a stock declines. The market, once the preserve of hip; business, is now the playground of women.”

Down-town brokers’ oflices still re main exclusively masculine. Hut some enterprising brokers, realism"; (,Iml a fortune lay ready to hand, have opened up olliees in the groat lintels of I’ark Avenue and Ki'l'th Avenue. These olliees. luxurious!v furnished, have hoard rooms .specially set aside for women customers. Enriched with llu* stock gossip ot the Hrulgc and dinner-table. hundreds of women crowd these rooms. Everyone is ill a speculaI in* fever.

Knler a room where men an* watching; a hoard as intently as a eat a mouse, and a deathlike stillness reigns. What story lies behind ihose poker faces You cannot guess. Some ■me on your right has just made a few l liousanils ; someone on your Id t has lost, the same amount. Hut which is winner and which loser lies hidden by a mask.

■ Enter tin upinwn oilier where women are plunging in the market, anil you will (iml llu* room is crowded. At, lirst only the regulars, who spend all the week in 'front of the board, are at hand. They have fheir favourite seats, like those elderly gentlemen in a London eluh.

Each carries a newspaper turned back to the (innncial page, marked at various items. They nod to the young manager, chosen because In* lias a way with Women and will not lie bored should they prow* inexperienced and tearful. 'I lie lia/.e of smoke Imm many cigarettes mingles with the soil lights from tastefully designed electric globes. You hear the jargon of the market:

“My dear, how is your pup to-day? Is the market sniff or strong? ” And tin* reply, “It’s "rowin'' up to he a do*'.” Or, if fate lias overtaken the stock, the speaker smiles wanly: •‘Someone strangled it at birth.” Hill for the most, part the room is (|tiiot>, punctured by an occasional “Oh” or “ Ah ” as the ticker reveals some unexpected change of fortune.. The married woman lias brought a new problem to the market. Does her husband know that she is speculating? One married woman in conversation explained that she was first attracted to llu* market as a cure lor nerves. “ 1 could not get away 'from myself, and I sought tin* market its a distraction, she said. “ .My husband is hitlerlv opposed to my new activities. I don I need the. money, hut 1 love I lie excitement.”

Sin* mentioned one ol her I fiends who had inherited CMO.tlOt) and by clever stock manipulation tripled it. Sometimes I In* young manager will hear a sad “What will Harry say S” but as a rule women lake their losses manfully, and olteii, il it is their first experience ol the Exchange, they cease speculating. Women are. ol course, always on the hull side of the market. Not one in ten will operate on the down side. They know by intuition that their slock is “going up.” r l bey are tin* greatest advertisers that the market lias ever known.

Turning 'irom their women euslomeis to the brokers themselves, we lind a new conception of living among those to whom tin* women take their losses manfully, and olten, large fortunes. Since the visit of flic ill-fated financier l.oewensteiil with his aeroplane as means of transport, the plane has be. come the carriage dc luxe ol Wall Street's favoured sons.

Some come down by hydroplane from their up-State homes, and land near Wall Street, off Battery Point. And from as far as California private ’planes bring owners who must visit New York on financial business. One man comes there regularly irom Deliver. The railways are discarded as too slow or too out of date, although the private Pullmans would seem the height of luxurious ease to humbler folk.