Hot Tip

If a Power in Wall Street stops to chat with his favorite newsboy and lets fall a hint that such and such a stock is cheap at the current market price, the newsboy has what is known as a "sure thing." If the boy generously lets a traffic policeman in on the secret, he unburdens himself of a "hot tip." If the policeman hesitates to act on the tip, decides first to read How to Invest Money Wisely, by John Moody, he is given the benefit of "financial counsel."

"Sure things" and "hot tips," while still plentiful, carry light weight with sophisticated investors. But "financial counsel" has the color of wisdom and respectability. An idol crashed, therefore, when members and guests of Manhattan's Delta Upsilon Club listened, last week, to an address by John Moody, publisher of Moody's Manual, President of Moody's Investors' Service, financial analyst, author of The Art of Investing and How to Invest Money Wisely. Said Analyst Moody, humbly:

"I know no hard and fast rule for successful investments. It seems ridiculous to me to be asked how to invest money wisely.

"Years ago, I thought I knew it all. It was then that I wrote The Art of Investing. At 30, I wrote How to Invest Money Wisely. After the book was published, a shabby old gentleman, 85 years old, called on me and asked if I were the author. When I said I was, and asked him what he wanted, he replied:

:' 'When I was 25 years old I wrote a book on how to invest money wisely and look at me now. I actually am in need of food. I suspect that when you are my age you will be about as I am.'

"Now I believe that the span of human life is too brief a time in which to acquire the art of investing."

But Analyst Moody, 38 years in Wall Street, not in need of food, added, less humbly: ''There is. perhaps, a way to advise how to invest more or less wisely and with a minimum of risk."