ABSTRACT
In the years since Magee wrote Chapter 18, some different connotations have attached themselves to the terms “speculator” and “investor.” A great cultural shift has also occurred. The days when the New Haven (New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad) was a beacon of respectability (and lent luster to its investor) and paid good dividends are gone forever. And so is the New Haven. In fact, after the turn of the century, corporations saw a change in investor sentiment about dividends. Investors wanted capital appreciation and cared less for dividends. In fact it has lately been considered the mark of a “growth stock” not to pay dividends. Evidently, the days of the New Haven are gone forever, when an “investor” was one who bought, held, and collected dividends, and “speculators” were slightly suspect men like Magee who played the medium-term trends and bought “unchic,” “speculative” stocks. It all has a sepia tone to it.
