158 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
points, as in the case of the automobile cited above, the next 
sale price might occur at any point within that range. 
[n proportion as a market is organized, and all bids and 
offers brought speedily into it, a severe competition between 
hidders and between offerers ensues, with the result that the 
spread is made between the highest bid and the lowest offer. 
For this reason, not only are price fluctuations between sales 
minimized, but fairer prices and enhanced negotiability are 
also attained. This is clearly the case with as highly organized 
a market as the New York Stock Exchange, upon whose floor 
the buying and selling orders of the entire nation converge. 
The Rules of the Exchange (Chapter I, Sec. 9) provide 
that ordinarily “bids or offers shall not be made at a less varia- 
tion than 14 of one dollar in stocks, and 18 of 1% of the par 
value of bonds.” This naturally means that market prices are 
usually quoted by 4s or multiples of 14s. 
Work of the Commission Broker.—With this general 
ohilosophy of prices the average broker is, of course, perfectly 
acquainted, although his mind is too fully occupied between 
the trading hours of 10 A.M. and 3 P.M. with specific orders to 
spend over-much time pondering upon it. His business consists 
not of theorizing about the forces of supply and demand, but 
of executing the buying and selling orders caused by those 
forces, amid the posts, tickers, telephones, and signal boards 
on the Exchange floor. If we are to comprehend his everyday 
work, as well as the Stock Exchange machinery whereby he is 
enabled to carry it on, we must follow a typical “investment 
transaction’”’—that is, an outright purchase and outright sale 
of a given security—through all its various stages from begin- 
ning to end. 
Origin of a Selling Order.—To commence with the supply 
or selling side of the transaction, we find Mr. Jones of Balti- 
more one fine morning reading the stock ticker with evident 
1 Qee Chanter V. p. 125.