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Gambling in Farm Produce. 
A person is said to be “ covering ” when he is haying hack his options 
and futures previously sold. 
“Short selling” is selling options and futures a person has not got in 
the hope of being able to buy hack at less money at a decline in the 
market. 
“ Rigging the markets ” is putting them up or down in futures and options 
artificially with some ulterior motive. 
A “ Syndicate ” or “ Ring ” is composed of many persons who have com- 
bined to rig the market in futures and options up or down by dealing in 
enormous quantities. 
“ Bolstering ” the option and future markets means trying to support 
them by artificial manipulation. 
“ Hammering ” the option and future markets means trying to depress 
them by artificial manipulation. 
“ Switching ” is a form of gambling which means reselling one month's 
options and futures previously bought and replacing them with those of a 
distant month, or buying back what a person has previously sold and selling 
again for a more distant month. 
A “ Margin ” is a sum of money deposited by an operator in futures as a 
security for the payment of differences in prices that may become due from 
him during the currency of a contract. A margin may be increased if prices 
turn against the operator, or diminished if they turn in his favour. 
A “ Stop Order ” is a form of gambling which means that a person can 
gamble in options or futures with minimum losses by giving orders that 
directly the loss has reached the sum stipulated the said contracts are to be 
closed at once. 
“ Gambling on specified margins” means that directly the margin is gone 
the brokers have orders to close the options and futures at once. 
A “Clearing-house” is an institution whereby all option and future 
contracts are liquidated, and where any actual produce tendered against such 
contracts is tendered according to the rules of the institution. In this way 
80 to 90 per cent, of the future and option contracts bought and sold for 
delivery in each month of the year between the various members can be 
liquidated, and against these no produce is ever tendered. 
“ Ringing-out ” is a transaction whereby one contract of a given month 
is set against another contract of the same month between two parties 
trading together. The transaction is also known as “ sets-off.” 
The “ Settlement System ” is an institution in connection with the clear- 
ing-house whereby the balances of all cash differences between all parties 
trading together are paid in or received on the basis of values fixed by a 
committee of this institution on a fixed day of each week, and thus each 
account is balanced daily or weekly to a penny. By this means operators 
in futures and options can only lose one day’s or week’s differences in case of 
a member declaring himself bankrupt, and unable to meet his differences. 
A “ Carrying Charge ” (I may add) is a small amount paid to the person 
who really or nominally holds the commodity while a contract is maturing. 
It is paid in the form of a premium on the price of a distant “ future.” 
For some years past the future system has been rapidly 
extending in the United States, and an agitation against it has 
for some time been carried on by American farmers and their 
representatives in Congress. Almost universally farmers appear 
to be of opinion that the system is injurious to their interests, 
and of this view both the late Secretary of Agriculture and the 
