The work of the Stock Exchange

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1831284952

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-225876

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Meeker, James Edward http://d-nb.info/gnd/126597340

Title:: The work of the Stock Exchange

Edition:: Revised edition

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: The Ronald Press Company

Year of publication:: [1930]

Scope:: XVI, 720 Seiten; Illustrationen, Diagramme

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

APPENDIX 507 to receive them. In their midst was stationed an operator who printed the stock quotations on the tape by means of an electrical punch- button device, from the written slips handed to him in rotation by the four men receiving quotations from the floor. Naturally, in a busy market, these four men could receive quotations faster than the single central operator could print them. Also, he would in practice seize a bunch of slips from one receiving operator, print them, then seize another bunch from the next operator, and so on. Thus the quotations were not printed in their strict chronological order, with the result that sometimes on the stock tape there would appear “bunched” quotations for one active stock after another. This gave the public the false impression that, in the market, activity went in spurts from one stock issue to another. It also rendered some quo- :ations on the tape still further behind the market. In proportion as stock market activity increased, these defects became pronounced. After careful testing, a new system for quotation transmission was fully installed on the Exchange in the spring of 1923. The chief feature of this new system was the abolition of the four receiving operators and printing operator, and the substitution therefor of electrical machinery. Today, when the floor operator presses down a key on his instrument, an appropriate impression is made on a mechanical device resembling a Pianola roll. An electrical “inter- rupter” speedily shifts from one to another of the several sending wires from the floor, and thus largely avoids the old evil of “bunched sales” on the stock tape. Where formerly two persons had had to handle quotations after the floor operator had dispatched them and before they appeared on the tape, now nothing but machinery inter- vened between the floor operator and the New York Quotation Co. stock tapes. Where the old system had possessed a maximum speed of 225 characters on the tape per minute, the new system now made it easily possible to print 260 characters per minute upon it. But volume in the stock market continued to grow, and with it the necessity for still speedier operation of the ticker system. The central transmission machinery had been improved, and now the ticker instruments themselves came to constitute the chief factor in limiting the speed of the system, for they could print only about so many characters per minute irrespective of market conditions. During 1927, days of 2,000,000 share sales became common-places, and even “3,000,000 share days” not uncommon. In the spring of 1928, several “4,000,000 share days” occurred, and even one “5,000,000 share day.” This great volume of business naturally tested the whole Stock Ex- -hange mechanism, and the greatest difficulty was experienced with

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