《股票作手回忆录·第二十四章·收尾反思》第5节
The law punishes whoever originates or circulates rumors calculated to affect adversely the credit or business of individuals or corporations, that is, that tend to depress the values of securities by influencing the public to sell. Originally, the chief intention may have been to reduce the danger of panic by punishing anyone who doubted aloud the solvency of banks in times of stress. But of course, it serves also to protect the public against selling stocks below their real value. In other words the law of the land punishes the disseminator of bearish items of that nature. How is the public protected against the danger of buying stocks above their real value? Who punishes the distributor of unjustified bullish news items? Nobody; and yet, the public loses more money buying stocks on anonymous inside advice when they are too high than it does selling out stocks below their value as a consequence of bearish advice during so-called “raids.” If a law were passed that would punish bull liars as the law now punishes bear liars, I believe the public would save millions. Naturally, promoters, manipulators and other beneficiaries of anonymous optimism will tell you that anyone who trades on rumors and unsigned statements has only himself to blame for his losses. One might as well argue that any one who is silly enough to be a drug addict is not entitled to protection.
注释摘要
这段文字展现的是20世纪初美国证券市场一个极不公平的监管悖论，我们得先回到那个时代的法律环境里去看。利弗莫尔所抨击的这条法律，其历史根源要追溯到19世纪下半叶到1907年大恐慌之间的那段岁月。当时的美国银行业极其脆弱，没有中央银行体系，任何关于某家银行偿付能力有问题的传言，哪怕只是街头巷尾的耳语，都能引发挤兑。挤兑一旦开始就是自我实现的预言，因为银行准备金…