THE ODD-LOT BUSINESS
235
certificates of lesser denomination and selling them to commis-
sion brokers to fill such odd-lot buying orders as may have
come into the market through the latter from the general public.
On the other hand, the odd-lot dealer stands equally ready to
purchase at any time such odd-lots of stock as may be offered
by the public through their brokers. When the dealer’s odd-lot
purchases have aggregated 100 shares, he can readily resell
them as a round lot in the open market. Thus the odd-lot
dealers act as jobbers for the execution of buying and sell-
ing orders involving less than 100 shares which commission
brokers receive from the public. Owing to the extensive equip-
ment and efficient operation of the odd-lot houses, these small
orders, whether for a purchase or a sale, can be placed by a
customer in a commission broker’s office, and then be executed
almost instantly on the Exchange floor.
A Typical Odd-Lot Transaction.—Perhaps the best
method of explaining the exact nature and methods of the odd-
lot business is to describe a typical transaction from beginning
to end. When a customer gives his order for the purchase of
20 shares of Sun Oil common stock to his commission broker,
the latter at once transmits it to his telephone clerk on the floor
of the Exchange. Some commission houses, either because of
the large volume of their total transactions, or because of a
tendency to specialize in just this odd-lot brokerage business,
maintain on the Exchange a separate telephone booth for their
odd-lot orders. With other commission firms, the order will
be sent by the same telephone over which orders for 100 shares
are transmitted. In either case, the odd-lot order is speeded
from the commission office to the board room by precisely the
same methods described in Chapter VI in the instance of a
100-share order.
Transmission of Odd-Lot Orders.—The telephone clerk
might, of course, signal for the floor member of his firm on the
annunciator boards, and turn the order over to him to execute
