《股票作手回忆录·第九章·1907大恐慌·做空封神》第12节
One day I saw in the Paris Herald a dispatch from New York that Smelters had declared an extra dividend. They had run the price of the stock and the entire market had come back quite strong. Of course that changed everything for me in Aix. The news simply meant that the bull cliques were still fighting desperately against conditions--against common sense and against common honesty, for they knew what was coming and were resorting to such schemes to put up the market in order to unload stocks before the storm struck them. It is possible they really did not believe the danger was as serious or as close at hand as I thought. The big men of the Street are as prone to be wishful thinkers as the politicians or the plain suckers. I myself can’t work that way. In a speculator such an attitude is fatal. Perhaps a manufacturer of securities or a promoter of new enterprises can afford to indulge in hope-jags. At all events, I knew that all bull manipulation was foredoomed to failure in that bear market. The instant I read the dispatch I knew there was only one thing to do to be comfortable, and that was to sell Smelters short. Why, the insiders as much as begged me on their knees to do it, when they increased the dividend rate on the verge of a money panic. It was as infuriating as the old “dares” of your boyhood. They dared me to sell that particular stock short.
注释摘要
这里提到的场景，需要我们先回到 1907 年秋天那个特殊的历史时刻。利弗莫尔正远在法国的温泉疗养胜地艾克斯莱班，打算彻底放松几个月。所谓巴黎版《先驱报》，是当时在欧美之间传递金融消息的重要渠道。他看到的那条电讯说，美国熔炼公司宣布了额外股息。我们今天听到分红，常常觉得是好事；但在当时那个语境里——整个金融体系的信用已经极度紧张，货币市场的短期拆借利率正在飙…