28

The  reader  can  easily  translate  into  figures
the  price-movements  depicted  on  the  chart,
by  means  of  the  horizontal  price  lines.  These
annual  average  value  figures  have  been  added
up,  and  their  totals  displayed  at  the  foot
of  the  chart.  By  this  means  the  chart  not
only  pictorially  illustrates  the  various  pricemovements,
  but  it  also  gives  the  several  total
annual  values  of  all  the  stocks  depicted,  year
by  year,  at  their  respective  average  prices.
The  typical  British  stock,  of  course,  is
London  &  North  Western  Railway  Ordinary.
This  starts  at  the  price  of  164—almost  in
the  middle  of  the  chart  —  gradually  rises
to  204  in  the  years  1896-1897,  and  then
equally  gradually  declines,  until  it  records
150|-  as  its  lowest  quotation  in  the  year
1904.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  tendency
of  nearly  all  the  stocks  included  in  the  chart
is  to  slavishly  follow  the  same  direction
as  that  marked  out  by  North  Western  Railway
Ordinary,  both  in  their  upward  and  their
downward  movements.  Here  and  there  in  the
chart  an  occasional  short  deviation  occurs
in  a  few  of  the  zigzag  price  lines.  These
deviations  are  due  to  an  exceptional  individual
increase  or  decrease  in  capital  safety  or
dividend  productiveness  on  the  part  of  that
particular  stock.  But  it  is  curious  to  notice