The Big Picture

« GDP: el stinkeroo! | Main | Economists react to GDP »

Avoid Market Volatility with a Vintage Stock Market Machine Predictor Computer

Thursday, April 28, 2005 | 10:59 AM

Yes folks, you too can avoid days like Tuesday and Wednesday (and today!), if only you had a Vintage Stock Market Machine Predictor Ticker Compute r -- (and you know there's no way I am giving up mine!)

Well, unfortunately, you missed the opportunity, because it was up for sale on eBay, item number: 5574815810, but was sold for $167.50 as of Apr-26-05 13:05:44 PDT

Here's the description:

Up for bid is a stock market indicator that tells when stocks should be bought or sold based on market conditions. This would be a great gift for anyone in the stock market business. A bit of old history right here. This is a vintage piece which is evident by the Dow dial only going up to 2000! The face of the unit is in great condition. There are no major dents, dings, scratches or anything else that I could on the face or the dials. The device is enclosed in a wooden case on five sides. I wasn't able to get the device out of the wood box, to exam it further. There are special screws that keep it in place. The wood, I believe is walnut and it's in good condition. There are light scratches on it and it could use a good oiling Only the top left and righthand corners have minor dents/bruisings. You might be able to see them in the photo. All the lights, buttons and meter work just fine on this machine. The rotary switches turn smoothly on some knobs, and are tougher to turn on others. The DOW dial is frozen in place, however. It would need to be broken free or replaced for it to operate smoothly. I don't have the owner's manual and don't know how to operate it.

The knobs and buttons are marked as follows:

Rotary Dials: Dow from 0 to 2000, Stock Price from 0 to 100, "A" from 0 to 200, "B" from 0 to 240, "C" from 0 to 100.

Red Button(L) = "Push to Read", Red button(R) = "Push to Reset", Left light between red buttons = "Sell Only", Right button between red buttons = "Buy Only",

Flip Switches: Market Trends = Up or Down, Stock Price = 1000 or 100, Range = "C".

I think its a goof -- but apparently it was sold on eBay.

Source:
eBay
Item # 5574815810
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5574815810

>
UPDATE: May 2, 2005 7:47am

Barron's picked up this goofy little commentary -- Alan Abelson no less!