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When stocks are thought to be going down, and a small operation without much risk is desired, a small sum is given for the privilege of delivering a small amount of stock at a certain price; e.g. cash price of Erie being 57 per cent., a speculator would give fifty dollars to "put," or deliver, 100 shares at 56 1/2 say in ten days. He can only lose his fifty dollars if the market should go up, but if it goes down to 56, he gets his money back, and all that is below is so much profit.-Bartlett's Americanisms.
By Henry Percy Smith