THE ODD-LOT BUSINESS
230
The 20-share certificate, after it is obtained from the trans-
fer office, is sent to the purchasing broker, who at once pays
for it. The broker then delivers the certificate to his customer,
and the transaction is concluded.
A Sale of an Odd-Lot.—When the customer wishes to sell
to shares of Union Carbide stock, the process described above
is simply reversed. The selling order is sent over the telephone
and through the tubes to the odd-lot dealer, who buys the shares
in accordance with instructions accompanying the order. When
by such purchasing of many small lots the odd-lot dealer be-
comes long of, or accumulates, 100 shares of Carbide stock, he
can, of course, either hold them temporarily, or else sell a
round lot of 100 shares of the stock to someone at the Carbide
post. In this operation, the odd-lot dealer may sometimes stay
long of the given stock in varying amounts and for varying
periods of time, with the danger of loss if its price declines
and a chance for profit if its price rises in the meantime.
Work of the Transfer Office.—The methods employed in
exchanging odd-lot certificates for 100-share certificates also
deserve a word in passing. This exchange is, of course, effected
at the transfer office or agency of the corporation in question.®
For greater convenience, every listed company has two dif-
ferent kinds of share certificates—one for even 100 shares, and
the other for less than 100 shares.
When, for example, the odd-lot dealer has accumulated by
purchase 100 shares of Pennsylvania Railroad, in four lots—
let us say—of 17, 13, 20, and 50 shares, he can send these four
odd-lot certificates to the transfer office of the Pennsylvania
Railroad; and this office, after destroying the odd-lot certifi-
cates, will issue to the odd-lot dealer a single 100-share cer-
tificate. The reverse process takes place when the odd-lot
dealer wishes to obtain odd-lot certificates to make deliveries of
odd-lots which he has sold. If, for instance, he has sold odd-
® See Chapter IV, p. 95.
