In a boom such as the present one, which has shot many stocks to all-time highs, it is difficult—and possibly misleading—to stigmatize any particular stock category. Railroads, most machine-tool and agricultural-equipment manufacturers, autos, aircraft, building-trades suppliers, many metals — all these would have to be graded as unstable stock groups.

Others might have simply income-producing stocks and bonds held as investments.

In ordinary circumstances, with pledged bonds ahead of it, the debenture would have to be considered the lowest-ranking bond. Today most bonds mature in 20 to 40 years. Railroads and utilities may offer them over longer terms; industrial bonds tend to have a shorter life.

If the stock should drop to this level, your stop automatically becomes a market order to sell, thus preserving seven of your 13 points. If, however, the stock should continue to advance, the stop order can be moved upward, point by point, behind it. At 115, the stop could be pegged at 109.

A stop limit order specifies the price at which you hope to sell your stock before it falls further. To avoid some of this rigidity, an investor might place a stop limit order specifying one price for the stop and another for the limit order—say, 64 stop, 62 limit.

A stock may be high or low in relation to its own performance over a period of time, in relation to its category, or in relation to the market. A stock that is at its own yearly high must be judged for the possibility of going higher.

Buying stocks for income is relatively easy. The indicated stock dividend divided by the current price will give the yield in percentage terms. The average yield of 10 big oils in the first quarter of 1959 was three percent. For five chemicals it was 2.24 percent. For seven steels it was 3.85 percent.

The selling broker, furthermore, must arrange to receive the stock certificate, properly endorsed, from his customer, so that it can be transferred to the buyer.

It will debit Customer A’s account with the purchase price of his stock and credit Customer B with the selling price of his stock. It can also arrange the delivery of Customer B’s stock certificate to Customer A.

Stock basics say that ideally, you buy stock at its lowest price and sell at its highest. Timing your stock transactions, therefore, is perhaps the most delicate element of investment, the decision requiring the keenest judgment and the surest touch.

Is it safe to buy stock? All sorts of prudent and conservative institutions—colleges, pension funds, foundations, trust departments—invest in stocks.

Rate regulation by state power commissions permits — and even maintains — a reasonable return on utility operations, but curbs all chance of runaway profits.