CREDIT TRANSACTIONS IN SECURITIES 191 
We have seen how Jones bought his Steel stock on a 50- 
point margin. In obtaining more stock than he paid for, he 
employed $10,000 which he did not own. Since in effect he 
obtained value in stock for money he did not own, exchanging 
it for 100 shares of Steel, he thus sold money short and became 
long of stock. 
Also, when Thompson sold 100 shares of American Loco- 
motive short, he received a credit on his broker’s books for 
$10,000, in addition to his margin of $3,000, to balance the 
debit of the 100 shares of stock. Consequently, although per- 
haps he did not think of it in just this way, he really bought 
money on margin at the same time that he went short of the 
stock. 
Fluctuating Values in Goods and in Money.—Since the 
value of goods is so invariably expressed in terms of money, it 
is difficult to realize that the value of money itself, like any 
commodity, constantly fluctuates.® 
Because a margin purchase of goods inevitably produces a 
short sale of money, the margin purchase and the short sale 
are inseparable operations in any market in which credit trans- 
actions occur. If it is an evil deed to sell stocks short, then 
it must be equally wicked to sell money short. And, if we can- 
not purchase any commodity on margin without selling money 
short, then all credit transactions must be wicked. Thus the 
logical outcome of driving the wild asses of mistaken ethics 
into the field of financial economics, is a return to the Dark 
Ages, when there were not only no wicked credit transactions 
hut no business, law, order. or civilization either. 
Twofold Aspects of Margin Purchases.—The somewhat 
complicated results arising from this double nature of credit 
transactions may be summarized by saying that whoever pur- 
chases stocks on margin has a double chance for profit and a 
double chance for loss in the transaction. As we have seen in 
the instance of Jones and his 100 shares of Steel, if the price 
"% See Appendix VIIb.