《股票作手回忆录·第五章·赚大钱靠坐得住·老火鸡》第10节
The customer would finish the tale of his perplexity and then ask: “What do you think I ought to do?” Old Turkey would cock his head to one side, contemplate his fellow customer with a fatherly smile, and finally he would say very impressively, “You know, it’s a bull market!” Time and again I heard him say, “Well, this is a bull market, you know!” as though he were giving to you a priceless talisman wrapped up in a million-dollar accident-insurance policy. And of course I did not get his meaning. One day a fellow named Elmer Harwood rushed into the office, wrote out an order and gave it to the clerk. Then he rushed over to where Mr. Partridge was listening politely to John Fanning’s story of the time he overheard Keene give an order to one of his brokers and all that John made was a measly three points on a hundred shares and of course the stock had to go up twenty-four points in three days right after John sold out. It was at least the fourth time that John had told him that tale of woe, but old Turkey was smiling as sympathetically as if it was the first time he heard it.
注释摘要
这段文字描写的是营业厅里一个反复出现的场景，场景的主角是那位被顾客们在背后叫作“老火鸡”的帕特里奇先生。要真正理解这个场景的妙处，我们得先回到1900年代初华尔街的实地环境。当时，许多股票经纪行的营业厅都设有顾客室，里面摆着行情报价板，电报机不断吐出窄窄的纸带，上面印满了股票代码和最新的成交价格。场外的投机者一整天就聚集在这里，盯着报价板，交流着各种或真或…