THE FLOOR TRADER AND THE SPECIALIST 213
broker, and not until the latter has abandoned it does the spe-
cialist get it. Thus, the specialist’s business has its drawbacks,
like everyone else’s—otherwise everyone on the Exchange
would want to be a specialist and nobody would be left to fill
any other function.
Odd-Lot Business of Specialist.—Formerly, before the
present extensive odd-lot houses had evolved, the specialist
used to execute in his few particular stocks fractional orders
from 1 to 99 shares as a broker for the odd-lot dealers of that
time. This commission business in odd-lots materially assisted
the specialist during the earlier and financially leaner years of
his existence, when the turnover in the market was small and
his business was scanty. But with the growth of Exchange
transactions and the increasing 100-share business undertaken
by the specialist, his odd-lot business became less welcome and
in the end suffered from unavoidable and natural discrimina-
tion. In consequence, as will be related in the next chapter,
the present odd-lot houses naturally evolved.
Some few specialists, however, still execute orders for odd
lots in the same way as the present-day odd-lot dealer. Al-
though the aggregate bulk of odd-lot orders thus executed is
not a large factor today, nevertheless, the specialist, among his
other functions, is always a potential if not an actual com-
petitor to the odd-lot dealer, and as such exerts a salutary even
if a somewhat negative effect on the odd-lot business of the
present time. This fact perhaps accounts for a common ten-
dency on the part of the public to confuse the specialist with
the odd-lot dealer.
“Crossing” Orders.—There is still another constitutional
restriction'* upon the specialist as a broker which deserves
attention. Even more frequently than is the case with the com-
mission broker, he will find on his book (of which more anon)
orders to buy and to sell the same amount of the same stock at
u See Chapter Xv, B. 23% and Appendix VIITe,
