12 
often happens that a stock either gradually 
improves or deteriorates in stability in direct 
ratio with an improvement or a deterioration in 
its desirability as an investment ; for example, 
the average annual fluctuation of Grand Trunk 
Railway Second Preference Stock in 1901, based 
on the preceding three years, was about 30 per 
cent. ; whereas the average annual fluctuation 
at the present time, based on the last three 
years, is under 10 per cent. In such case the 
stock must be treated as if it were a new stock 
which has not yet found its proper market 
position, and, to minimise the element of 
chance, it should be avoided until the per 
manence of the average annual fluctuation of 
the stock, at its altered level, can be appreciated 
at its true limits. 
Again, in selecting stocks that are subject 
to different market influences, it must be re 
membered that the chief market for any 
particular security is liable to transposition. 
By market influence we mean the influence 
created by the general investment conditions 
obtaining on the Stock Exchange in which the 
stock is mainly dealt in. Thus, a few years 
ago a number of the bond issues of American 
Railways were chiefly held in this country, and 
the principal market for them was accordingly 
the London Stock Exchange. But, owing to