... Gerald M Loeb ... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh ...
... J.T. ... tonight, I am rereading the biography of Gerald M Loeb, "The Wizard of Wall Street" by Ralph G Martin, 1965, when the following reminded me why he is one of my heroes ...
<<Loeb then had about 100 customers, and the biggest of them would order 10,000 shares of a $100 stock, which meant an order involving $1 million on a single position on a single stock. Loeb not only had this man's power of attorney, but he had similar powers of attorney from 85 percent of his customers:
"When I sold out in October, 1929, I not only sold every stock I owned, but I sold every stock every single one of my customers owned - and this included all their favorite stocks they had never touched, It included absolutely everything. No pets, no investor stocks, no favorites, nothing held back. I mean we really sold out. We had nothing but cash."
At this time, the bubble was still big. There had been some zigzag at the top, and a few stocks dipped instead of jumped, but most of the others were still jumping.
Loeb sent all his cash over to First National Bank to be put into safe short-term loans. "My idea," said Loeb, "was that this was dangerous, that I not only wanted to get out, but I wanted to stay out, and make it hard to get back in again."
Loeb then took the next boat to Europe (to vacation). It was three weeks later when the Wall Street bubble burst.>> |
