252 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
tant factor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, no 
odd-lot house has ever yet failed. 
Economic Significance of the Odd-Lot Business.—In 
conclusion, something of a more general nature should be 
added concerning the broader economic significance of this sys- 
tem for the execution of odd-lot orders on the New York Stock 
Exchange. Small and individually inconsiderable as many 
odd-lot sales and purchases are, their aggregate amount is very 
large. It was recently estimated that, on the average, about 
30% of the total sales made on the floor of the Exchange arose 
from odd-lot transactions. But this percentage naturally varies 
from time to time, and on certain occasions has amounted to 
possibly 60% or even more. To the small investor particu- 
larly, the Exchange is able through its odd-lot machinery to 
render a very real and far-reaching service. Its present odd-lot 
system has placed the retail buyer and seller more nearly upon 
a plane with the wholesaler in security dealings than is the case 
in almost any other line of modern business. The retail or 
odd-lot prices are founded directly upon wholesale or 100-share 
prices, and are, as we have seen, for the most part only 14% 
or 14 % away from the wholesale prices. The New York Stock 
Exchange makes every effort to give the small investor and 
trader in odd-lots every essdntial protection which is afforded 
the buver or seller of 100-share lots. 
The Odd-Lot Dealer as a Factor in Distribution.—The 
odd-lot machinery of the Stock Exchange also renders no small 
assistance to the large listed stock corporations, in enabling 
them to achieve a broad and stable distribution of their shares 
among the investing public. Corporations have long realized 
that it was to their decided advantage to distribute their shares 
evenly in small amounts among many stockholders, rather than 
simply in large amounts among a comparatively few holders. 
Such indeed has been the general trend in the recent distribu-