A TYPICAL INVESTMENT TRANSACTION 173 
advertise in the newspapers. It might be months instead of 
minutes before he would happen upon such a buyer as he can 
find almost at once through the Stock Exchange, and even then 
he might have to sell his stock at a heavy discount. Without 
the work of the stock exchanges the public would indeed hesi- 
tate before investing its money in securities which would be so 
difficult to dispose of afterward. 
Scope of the Stock Market.—Contemporary fiction to the 
contrary notwithstanding, there is nothing particularly mysteri- 
ous about the operation of the Stock Exchange. In its funda- 
mentals it is like any other market, except that it is more com- 
pletely organized and handles a larger turnover of sales. So 
huge is the field covered by this market, so numerous are the 
buyers and the sellers dealing in it, so widespread and efficient 
are the commission brokerage houses, and so ready are the 
dealers on its floor, that investors can at any time purchase the 
prime American investment securities there, or in case of need 
turn their securities into cash almost immediately. American 
investors and business men are so accustomed to this instant 
ability to sell or purchase securities that they sometimes forget 
the very real and very essential services which the stock 
exchanges render them. 
True Nature of the Stock Market.—The average Amer- 
ican, of course, is not a member of the New York Stock Ex- 
change. If he sees the operation of this great market at all, 
necessarily it is not at close hand from the Exchange floor but 
even at best from a distance in the visitors’ gallery. And 
owing alike to the surf-like roar of many voices which its open- 
market system makes inevitable, to the swift movements of the 
many men on its floor, and to its many unique mechanical 
devices, the impression of the Stock Exchange which he forms 
from looking down upon it for a few minutes from the gallery 
is as likely to deepen his doubts and confuse his understanding 
of its real nature, as to inform him of its actual methods and 
economic services.