three o'clock
During the last thirty minutes it had become evident to all that the boardroom traders and plungers , together with many of the semi-professional gamblers , who operated through commission houses , were selling out their long stock and going short over the opening of the Wall Street hoodoo-day , Friday , the thirteenth of the month . But it was also evident , with the heavy selling at the close and the stiffness of the price , which had never wavered as block after block was thrown on the market , that some powerful interest as well had taken cognisance of the fact that the morrow was hoodoo-day . At the close , most of the sellers , had they been granted another five minutes , would have repurchased , even at a loss , what they had sold , for it looked as though they had sold themselves into a trap . Their anxiety was intensified by the publication , a few minutes later , of this item : `` Barry Conant in coming from the Sugar crowd after the close remarked to a fellow broker , ` By three o'clock to-morrow , Friday , the 13th , will have a new meaning to Wall Street . ' This was interpreted as pointing to a terrific jump in Sugar to-morrow . '' `` The Street '' knew that the news bureau that sent out this item was friendly to Barry Conant and the `` System , '' and that it would print nothing displeasing to them . Therefore , this must be , a foreword of the coming harvest of the bulls and the slaughter of the bears .