Safeguarding Invested Capital. 39 
The desirability of every investment must be judged 
according to the official information published by the 
undertakings to which they relate, unless an oppor 
tunity is given for a special investigation. In many 
cases such information is correct, but frequently the 
weak points are studiously concealed, whereas had their 
existence been known to the investor most probably he 
would have disregarded the security. 
Moreover, the market price of large issues is pre 
carious; and often circumstances that have no direct 
connection with an enterprise or the political develop 
ment of the country in which it is situated, cause the 
price of its stock to move in a direction contrary to 
that warranted by its intrinsic merits. In this way the 
price of a security sometimes falls to an unjustifiably 
low level, and remains unduly depressed for years. 
Bearing in mind these uncontrollable risks, and being 
anxious to maintain its reputation for selling securities 
in every way reliable, the Registry confines its own 
dealings to stocks which it has fully investigated, and 
such investigation can only then be really reliably made 
when an entire issue is taken up. 
In the Advisory Department of the Registry the 
safest, cheapest, and most remunerative stocks, in the 
creation of which the Registry has taken no part, are 
recommended for investment, and can be procured by 
customers through either their own or the Registry’s 
brokers; but the Registry itself declines to deal in such 
stocks for the simple reason that it has no control over 
them.