80 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
the day on the Exchange. Shortly before 10 A.M. the employee 
of the Exchange whose business it is to open and close the 
stock market, enters the rostrum and takes his seat. On the 
fAoor below are over 2,000 people. The brokers and traders 
gather about the posts—waiting. In the telephone booths along 
the side walls the telephone clerks are busy with orders for 
purchases and sales. The black signal boards are flashing one 
white number after another as the brokers are called to the 
telephones. A low hum of conversation fills the Board Room. 
There is a tension in the air, for orders have accumulated in 
the brokerage houses overnight from all over the country and 
the opening is, therefore, usually energetic. 
Suddenly, exactly on the hour of 10 A.M., an employee of 
the Exchange in the rostrum sets off the electric gong. The 
market has opened! Instantly a roar of voices rises as the 
brokers rush into the “crowds” around the various posts and 
back to their telephone stalls. Hundreds of men swarm about 
the posts shouting bids and offers and waving their hands in 
the air. 
Although at first the spectator may think that bedlam has 
veritably broken loose, if he will follow closely the movements 
of almost any one of the brokers on the floor he will suddenly 
realize that the noisy chaos below him is in reality made up of 
hundreds of orderly though energetic individuals performing 
their work systematically and efficiently. In spite of the clamor 
and excitement on the floor, millions of shares valued at many 
millions of dollars are bought and sold there daily with a 
negligible number of errors or misunderstandings. 
Brokers and Dealers.—The casual visitor to the Stock 
Exchange is apt to come away much impressed with the me- 
chanical appliances on the floor which have just been described, 
but rather oblivious to its much more important human mechan- 
ism. For the securities market is able to function only through 
the highly specialized work of the several different types of 
brokers and dealers who go to compose it. Indeed, the day