212 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
This rule with regard to the execution of orders by the 
specialist is strictly enforced and violations of it, which might, 
of course, amount to “trading on his customers’ orders,” have 
long been severely punished. Indeed, attempted breaches of 
this regulation are usually easy to detect, both from the action 
of prices on the ticker tape and from the keen and experienced 
observation of other members about the post. 
Specialist as Broker.—As in the case of the floor trader, 
the present tax upon sales of securities has proved very burden- 
some to the specialist as a dealer, and By artificially deterring 
him from entering into transactions for close profits, has ex- 
tended a similar disruptive and weakening influence upon the 
machinery of the stock market. Nevertheless, unlike the less 
fortunate floor trader, the specialist has his brokerage business 
to fall back upon. Indeed, his principal business has always 
consisted in serving as a broker for other brokers in his few 
particular stocks. 
Since he is always stationed at a single post, he is able to 
handle customers’ orders which other brokers are unwilling 
or unable to execute. If the commission broker were forced 
himself to execute for his customers, stop orders or other 
orders limited to prices far from the current market price, he 
might be compelled to remain at the given post with a single 
order for an indefinite period of time, lest he should “miss his 
market.” Such a course would be unprofitable and impossible. 
Consequently, such orders, as well as orders that are difficult 
of execution because of the inactivity or the intense activity of 
the stocks in question, the commission broker usually turns 
over to the appropriate specialist to watch and to execute, when 
the right moment arrives. 
From the specialist’s standpoint, therefore, he is entrusted 
as a rule only with those orders which no one else wants to try 
to execute. For, when the order first comes to the Exchange 
Aoor the commission broker gets it at his telephone; if unwill- 
ing to try to execute it he may turn it over to a two-dollar