THE DISTRIBUTION OF SECURITIES 105 
mental regard is shown it on the Exchange. On the other 
hand, its genuine merits will usually be recognized there quickly 
and accurately. 
This seasoning process is naturally of vast benefit to con- 
servative investors. The latter can wait until a security is well 
seasoned and avoid losses due to any weakness in it which has 
been revealed, and benefit by the constant readjustment of the 
price accurately to fit the risk entailed by its ownership. Since 
this seasoning is performed in the main by the speculator, he 
thus renders at his own risk a real service to the conservative 
investor, without cost to the latter.1? 
Speculative Maintenance of the Floating Supply.— 
Meanwhile, of course, the same speculators do not as a rule 
hold the same stocks for long periods of time. Instead, there 
is a constant “churning” of the speculative floating supply of 
listed stocks in the market. Frequently, a given portion of a 
fairly speculative stock may be held in rapid succession by 
hundreds of different speculators before it becomes sufficiently 
seasoned to justify the investor's purchasing it and locking it 
up permanently in his deposit box. But for all the swift 
changes of speculative ownership experienced by any one share 
of stock, the whole floating supply of the stock issue in question 
continues to be sustained at all times by all the speculators in 
the market, including the floor trader, the specialist, the odd-lot 
dealers, and the speculating customers of commission houses. 
Anyone can sell at any time at a concession in price, and no 
speculator or investor need be “stuck” with an unsalable cer- 
tificate, as is so frequently the case with unlisted stocks. 
Striking Securities from the List.—Occasionally, how- 
ever, this process of seasoning and distributing a security upon 
the Stock Exchange will suffer a rude interruption, owing to 
the security being either suspended or stricken from the list by 
the Committee on Stock List. The conditions which commonly 
"See Chapter II, p. 55, and Chapter V. p. 128.