SPECULATIVE TRANSACTIONS IN 1926 MAY WHEAT FUTURE 7 
to do so throughout the remainder of the month. Their long position 
was assumed by an enthusiastic bullish public who continued to carry 
the price on upward. In the 1926 May future the last sharp advance 
in December was due almost entirely to the activities of professional 
speculators. However, in the absence of a widespread public inter- 
est the liquidation of large professional speculators was accompanied 
by a marked shrinkage in the total open commitments and a decline 
in price. Further reference to this point is made in the following 
section, where the position of the eight large speculators is presented 
with the 1926 May future price. 
THE COMBINED POSITION OF EIGHT LEADING SPECULATORS COMPARED WITH 
_ Figure 4 shows for the whole of the 1926 May wheat future the aver- 
age closing price compared with the combined net position of the 
eight large speculators being considered in this bulletin. The block 
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Fic. 4.—The combined net position of eight large speculatcrs compared with the average closing 
price, by days, for the 1926 May wheat future 
plan of plotting the data has been used to bring out clearly, not only 
the course of the price and the position of the traders, but also how 
each series changed each day. Thus the vertical bars on the price 
curve represent the net changes in price from the close of the previous 
day to the close of the date'on which the bar appears. The vertical 
bars on the net position curve in turn represent the net change in 
the position of the group of traders (or the net trade) from the close of 
the previous day to the close of the date on which the bar is drawn. 
This makes possible a direct comparison of the net as well as the 
cumulative effect of each day’s trading by this group upon the price. 
With the exception of two short positions temporarily held the 
eight traders did not come into the market to any extent until the 
early part of November. From this point their net position increased 
rapidly on the long side until it reached a maximum on December 
24, of 21,955,000 bushels. During this upward swing the May 
future price increased from a close on November 9 of $1.437% to 
