《股票作手回忆录·第十四章·游戏永不变·人性永不变》第7节
My mind now being free to take up trading with some prospect of success, unvexed by debts, the next step was to get another stake. The Stock Exchange had been closed from July thirty-first to the middle of December, 1914, and Wall Street was in the dumps. There hadn’t been any business whatever in a long time. I owed all my friends. I couldn’t very well ask them to help me again just because they had been so pleasant and friendly to me, when I knew that nobody was in a position to do much for anybody. It was a mighty difficult task, getting a decent stake, for with the closing of the Stock Exchange there was nothing that I could ask any broker to do for me. I tried in a couple of places. No use. Finally I went to see Dan Williamson. This was in February, 1915. I told him that I had rid myself of the mental incubus of debt and I was ready to trade as of old. You will recall that when he needed me he offered me the use of twenty-five thousand dollars without my asking him. Now that I needed him he said, “When you see something that looks good to you and you want to buy five hundred shares go ahead and it will be all right.”
注释摘要
1914年7月底到12月中旬，纽约证券交易所关了四个半月，这在当时是石破天惊的事情。第一次世界大战在欧洲爆发，各国投资者疯狂抛售证券换黄金，恐慌像瘟疫一样跨过大西洋，美国人怕欧洲人把黄金全抽走，只好用这种极端方式给市场踩刹车。交易所关门期间，所有挂牌股票都没法正式交易，零星的黑市买卖有，但价格混乱、成交量极低，靠这个谋生的经纪人、投机客、 clerks 几…