Historical Thought for the Day
January 20, 2010
Thought for the day:
While rational expectations can tell us what will happen, however, they can never tell us when. –John C. Bogle
This day in financial history:
1870: The first known female-owned U.S. stock brokerage is launched, as sisters Victoria Woodhull and Tennie Claflin open their Woodhull, Claflin & Co. at 44 Broad St. in Manhattan. Bedeviled by rumors that it is merely a front for Woodhull's supposed lover, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the firm does not survive long. "It is probably only in the matrimonial line that women can become successful speculators," sneers broker Henry Clews. Source: Peter Wyckoff, Wall Street and the Stock Markets
1999: Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testifies to the House Ways & Means Committee that there is a "possibility" that stocks "will have difficulty" sustaining their recent returns and that investors are expecting "substantially greater growth in profits than has been experienced of late." NASDAQ promptly ignores him, rising 7.32 points to another record close at 2415.49. Source: The Wall Street Journal, January 21, 1999, p. A3;
Source: Jason Zweig
