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order from the broker's office to the appropriate post on the
Exchange floor, because of unusual pressure on telephones and
on the pneumatic tube system. Recently, a new system for
sorting and dispatching odd-lot orders on the Exchange floor
in preparation for the opening of the market at 10 A.M. has
considerably relieved, without however completely obviating,
the dangers of such delays in the transmission of odd-lot orders
to the odd-lot dealer.
THE ODD-LOT BUSINESS
Adjustment of Errors in Odd-Lots.—If at any time a
customer has any reason to question the price on the purchase
or sale of an odd-lot, he will find the odd-lot house always will-
ing to meet him more than half way. Indeed, each of the large
odd-lot houses maintains an extensive department of adjust-
ments, which thoroughly investigates any disputed bargain,
and on the basis of the conditions existing at the time of the
complaint makes such adjustment as is fair to all parties to the
transaction. This department has a ticker with a stamping
clock attached which stamps the current time on the tape,
minute by minute, all day long. Thus, the exact time at which
every transaction was reported on the tape can be easily ascer-
tained. Moreover, the odd-lot order, immediately on its receipt
by the commission broker’s telephone clerk on the Exchange, is
usually stamped with a time clock. Between these two records
it is thus possible, as a rule, to determine with some degree of
accuracy the actual time at which the given 100-share sale took
place, and to discover if there has been any error made in estab-
lishing the price of the odd-lot transaction based upon it. If
for no other reason, the keen competition for business between
the various odd-lot dealers on the Stock Exchange insures a
painstaking and adequate effort to give their customers the
greatest possible satisfaction. Unfortunately, however, the
liberal attitude of odd-lot firms in endeavoring to give the pub-
lic the benefit of the doubt on ad justments of the sort, is some-
times taken by investors to indicate an acknowledgment of
error on the part of odd-lot firms ; thus, in the matter of adjust-
