8 Agricultural Pjiices 



net result is that the actual corn cost $1,20 per bushel plus the com- 

 mission charge of a fraction of a cent per bushel. 



The speculator takes the risk, and the spirit in which he ap- 

 proaches the game is often the gambling spirit, pure and simple. 

 But, like all shrewd gamblers, he takes his risks as shrewdly as 

 possible, and after a time becomes expert in judging the probable 

 effects of weather, political news, transportation difficulties, etc., 

 on corn prices. And these factors are more real than some of our 

 agitators would have us believe. 



But while speculators perform a real service to society, there 

 is nothing angelic about them. They are concerned with a profit, 

 not with service. The professional speculator is generally either 

 "long" or "short" of the market; that is, he has corn bought or 

 sold for future delivery. The man who has December corn bought 

 for future delivery at $1.20 per bushel is hoping with all his energy 

 that the corn crop is short and price will therefore advance, that 

 transportation difficulties will materialize, that an unusual demand 

 Avill spring up from Europe for foodstuffs, that something will 

 happen to send up the price. He is favorable to the promulgation 

 of an}^ kind of news which will help him to sell his corn at a profit. 

 While the Board of Trade has regulations against the dissemina- 

 tion of false news, nevertheless these men at times seem to be able 

 to color the crop news very effectively. Situations develop where 

 most of the professional speculators are on one side of the market, 

 and where they are apparently able to use propaganda to force 

 prices verj'^ rapidly either up or down, at the expense of the ama- 

 teur speculators. 



The products most traded in on the Board of Trade are wheat, 

 com and oats, and to a lesser extent the cured hog products, rib 

 sides, lard, and moss pork. The smallest units traded in are 5,000 

 bushels of grain and 50,000 pounds of provisions. In the case of 

 the grains, the contracts most commonly traded in are contracts 

 for delivery in December, INIay, July and September. In the case 

 of the pork products, the contracts most traded in are contracts 

 for delivery in January, May, July and September. Before the 

 war, trading in December corn customarily opened in the month 

 of May. The price of December corn as quoted in ]\Iay was neces- 

 sarily based on the supposition that the ensuing crop would be a 

 normal crop, neither greater nor less than the average. If there 

 was cold, wet weather in May or June, the price advanced. If the 

 weather was warm and rather dry, the price declined slightly. 

 However, as a general proposition, before the war, the price held 

 practically steady during the months of May and June. During 



