the main that such a
course is a mistaken one. The machinery of his industry must, of course,
be kept in motion, or it will rust and cease to be able to move in
better times. But it is unwise to embark on new enterprises and
commitments when commerce, finance, and industry are all stagnant. And
very frequently buying on a falling market means just this.

It is like sowing in the depths of winter seeds which would mature just
as well if they were sown in March. No; it is when the tide has
definitely turned that new enterprises should be undertaken. The iron
frost is then broken, and the sower may go out to scatter in the
spring-time seeds which will bring in their harvest. To buy before the
turn is to incur the cost of carrying stocks for many unnecessary
months.

The converse of the proposition is to sell on a rising market.
Certainly. Sell on a rising market, but do not stop selling because the
market ceases to rise. A great part of the art of business is the
selling capacity and the organisation of sales, but to carry out a
preordained system of selling on an abstract theory is mere folly. To
cease selling just because the market is not rising at a given moment,
and to wait for a better day--which may not dawn--is to burden a firm
unduly with the carrying of stocks and commodities.

There is a saying in Canada, "Go, while the going is good." The
phrase--an invitation to sell--finds its origin in the state of the
roads. When the winter is making, the roads are hard and smooth for
sleighing, and are kept so by the continual fresh falls of snow, and you
can speed swiftly over the firm surface. But when the winter is
breaking, the falls of snow cease, and the sleigh leaps with a crash and
a bump over great gullies, tossing the traveller from side to side and
dashing his head against the dashboard. These depressions are called
"thank you marms," because that is the ejaculation with which the victim
informs his companions that he has recovered his equanimity. The man who
will never sell on a falling market is the man who will not face the
"thank you marms." He will "go while the going is good," but he will not
accept the corollary to the dictum, "But don't stop because going is
bad." He has not the nerve to face the bump and come up smiling. Don't
be afraid to sell on a falling market, or you will be afraid to sell at
all until you are forced to sell at far lower prices because of the
weight of stocks or commitments whic