V. 2:4 (136-140): Corner The Market

Corner The Market

Many instructive articles and major works in the field of technical analysis and speculation lie undisturbed on dusty back shelves, or have fallen into obscurity because they are no longer in print. As a unique feature of this magazine and in line with our continuing commitment to offer our readers instructive or practical material we will be reprinting classic stories and articles on speculation and technical analysis culled mostly from private libraries. We feel this material, which is only available to our subscribers, will be of interest and value as we are all reaching for practical insights and principles which we can somehow employ in our analyses, programs and trading activities.

The following story is reprinted from the August, 1911 edition of The Ticker Magazine. The introductory paragraph was penned by Richard D. Wyckoff, Editor and Publisher of the magazine.

The Story of the World's Greatest Corner

For breadth of conception, audacity of execution, and for the magnitude of the interested, no deal in the history of speculative commodity markets ever equaled that run by Joseph Leiter in 1898 on the Chicago Board of Trade. This young man, then under thirty, attempted to dictate the price of our chief breadstuff all over the world—for a time he found it easy. Men of half a century's experience in the trade gave way before him and he saw millions of profits to his credit—on paper. But man, proud man, dressed in a little brief authority, is sadly subject to that insidious malady, a "swelled head. " Leiter forgot that, with all his power, he was merely a chip on the stream of events, and concluded that he was the stream.

The following article was written immediately after the close of the deal by a man intimately connected with it who got much of his information at first hand. It has never before been printed. Even the plain facts as related make a fascinating and instructive story.