Chapter 9 My second cresis. The half- million- dollar news gave me enormous confidence. I had a very clear conception of how I had done it and I was so convinced I could repeat the feat again | HOW I MADE 2 000 000 IN THE STOCK MARKET new market technique and it was anything but easy to do. By the time I arrived back at my hotel I was exhausted. I must have looked more like a man about to commit suicide than one who had just made himself a small fortune. But I was proved right thiokol continued to rise and by making that decision in Paris I was able to hold on and make much more money out of the stock. A few weeks later in January 1959 I returned to New York. When I landed at Idlewild Airport I was holding 6 000 thiokol and 6 000 universal controls. They were both doing very well indeed thiokol was standing on the 100 mark and universal controls had risen to 45. In New York my first appointment was to see my brokers and discuss my Wall Street dealings with them. They told me that according to their books my investments had made me well over half a million dollars. I felt elated confident and successful. I booked myself a room at the Plaza Hotel and decided that during my stay I would continue my stock-market dealings from close quarters. How little did I know I was preparing to make a complete fool of myself. Within the next few weeks I was to bring myself within whistling distance of ruin. 108 CHAPTER NINE My Second Crisis -Lhe half-million-dollar news gave me enormous confidence. I had a very clear conception of how I had done it and I was also convinced I could repeat the feat again. I had no doubt that I had mastered my art. Working with my cables I had developed a sort of sixth sense. I could feel my stocks. This was no different from the feeling that a musical expert develops. His ear will detect a flat note which is inaudible to the ordinary listener. I could almost tell what stocks would do. If after an eight point advance a stock dropped back four points I did not become alarmed. I expected it to do just that. If a stock started to firm up I could often predict the day its advance would start. It was a mysterious unexplainable instinct but there
