A TYPICAL INVESTMENT TRANSACTION 171 
cial “inactive stock” post was provided, with facilities for filing 
bids and offers similar to the system maintained in the bond 
market. With inactive stocks, as designated by the Committee 
of Arrangements, the unit of trading is 10 shares, instead of 
the 100 share unit employed for active share issues. 
Complete Publicity of Stock Exchange Transactions.— 
But not only Jones and Smith are informed of their transac- 
tions in Steel; everyone in the country from Duluth to New 
Orleans, or from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, who is 
in any way interested in the market value of this stock, whether 
because he is a stockholder or only thinking of becoming a 
stockholder in the U. S. Steel Corporation, or because of the 
economic conditions in industry and trade which the price of 
its shares may reflect or even forecast, can gain almost instant 
information of the transaction in which Jones and Smith have 
figured, as well as every similar transaction that takes place 
that day and every other day on the Stock Exchange. The 
ticker service is of especial value to banks and other financial 
institutions. 
The uncanny swiftness and accuracy of the American stock 
ticker system invariably astonishes foreign visitors to America. 
Indeed, as eminent an economist as Paul Leroy-Beaulieu has 
strongly urged its adoption by the Paris Bourse.?* It is safe 
to say that there is no other market in the world whose trans- 
actions are given as complete, as immediate, and as reliable 
publicity, as those of the New York Stock Exchange. 
Quotation System.—In addition to the ticker system above 
mentioned, which reports transactions actually concluded upon 
the floor, the Exchange in 1928 also established another system 
for reporting current bids and offers for securities from the 
floor to its members’ offices. In order not to render the exam- 
ple of the sale of 100 Steel too complicated, consideration of 
this system was omitted from the transaction. 
© pee Chapter XI p. 293,