CHAPTER I: 
THE ODD-LOT BUSINE .. 
Odd-Lot vs. Round Lot.—Thus far in the present volume, 
the description of transactions in stocks occurring on the New 
York Stock Exchange has invariably presupposed a purchase 
or sale of 100 shares, or some multiple of 100 shares. The 
reader, however, must not conclude on this account that no 
smaller number of shares than 100 can be bought or sold on 
the Exchange. As a matter of fact, a customer can through 
the agency of the ordinary Stock Exchange commission house 
buy or sell any number of shares from 1 to 99 with perfect 
readiness. But in the case of such orders for “odd-lots” of 
stock (as orders involving less than 100 shares are called), 
resort must be had to special methods which are unnecessary 
with orders for “round lots” or “full lots” of 100 shares, or 
multiples thereof, and which in consequence were not touched 
upon in the typical investment transaction described in Chapter 
VI. So considerable is the proportionate volume of these odd- 
lot orders today that the matter of their handling on the Stock 
Exchange deserves a separate chapter. 
Basis for the 100-Share Unit of Trading.—First of all, a 
word is necessary concerning this 100-shart unit of trading 
which prevails in the Exchange. Under ideal conditions the 
unit number of shares in which trading normally takes place 
would be the single share of stock. But the New York Stock 
Exchange is the principal security market in the United States 
—now the wealthiest nation in the world—and because of the 
vast extent and enormous cash value of the transactions which 
occur under its auspices it was long ago compelled to adopt 
wholesale as distinguished from retail methods of operation in