230 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
writer and hurrying his daily column of market news to press, 
may continue to find in this alleged “gunning for stops” a 
spirited human-interest motif with which to enliven the in- 
evitably bleak mathematics of his items. The customer whose 
market order to sell has been executed for a lower price than 
he could wish, may accept this, as other Wall Street legends, 
with conviction. But the practical broker, trader, or specialist 
on the floor will tell a very different story concerning it. 
Specialist’s Economic Services.—A concluding paragraph 
is called for, to relate the more obvious economic services 
rendered by the specialist to the stock market on the Exchange. 
In so far as he acts as a dealer his function resembles that of 
the floor trader, in that he greatly assists in maintaining at his 
own risk a continuous market in securities. Hence, like the 
foor trader, he is a necessary instrument in the task of render- 
ing securities listed on the Exchange instantly negotiable. Also, 
because of the close prices at which his own trades are carried 
out, the specialist performs a similar service in stabilizing price 
movements. 
But apart from these considerations, the slow and natural 
evolution of the specialist as a broker’s broker has been due to 
the mechanical impossibility of executing difficult brokerage 
orders in any other way. Vithout his services, therefore, the 
prompt acceptance and execution of many orders of vital mo- 
ment to customers all over the country would be impossible. 
As we have seen, the stop-loss orders whereby purchasers of 
stock are enabled to avoid or at least minimize losses, could not 
be handled except for the specialist. In the universal process 
of specialization through which all modern business is passing, 
the specialist, as indeed his very name would imply, has been 
created by natural economic and practical causes to support 
weak markets, restrain soaring markets, stabilize prices, and 
in addition to prove at all times an indispensable medium 
through which a vast number of the buying and selling orders 
of the nation flow.