To speculate in Wall Street when you are no longer an insider, is like buying cows by candlelight.

From Bouck White’s 1910 The Book of Daniel Drew is a semi-fictional biography sometimes mistaken for an autobiography of American financier Daniel Drew (1797-1879). The book contains two popular sayings: “To speckilate as an outsider, is like trying to drive black pigs in the dark,” and “To speckilate in Wall Street when you are no longer an insider, is like buying cows by candlelight.” Both sayings — especially “buying cows by candlelight” — popularize the image that Wall Street is an insider’s game. Drew might have said both of them, but it cannot be confirmed. [via]