264 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE
inquire the market. Since it sometimes happens that a dealer’s
bid or offer will thus be left with a quotation clerk and later,
unknown to the latter, the dealer may have his order canceled
or may perhaps conclude his transaction with another dealer
in the crowd, the bids and offers left with quotation clerks are
necessarily subject to confirmation before serving as a basis
for dealing. On the side wall is a device which makes an
enlarged reflection of the bond ticker tape visible to the bond
crowd, and thus keeps it informed as to the general course of
all listed bond prices.
The active bond market, as its name implies, deals in those
American corporation bonds which are generally the most
actively negotiated. When issues previously inactive become
consistently active, they are transferred hither, and when previ-
ously active issues grow consistently inactive, they are removed
to the inactive bond market. -
The Inactive Bond Market.—The second section of the
bond room is devoted to the inactive bond market, which is con-
ducted on quite different principles. Many American company
bonds are bought and sold on the Exchange so intermittently
that there can be no “bond crowd” of Exchange members
actively shouting bids and offers for them. Thus, the problem
with such issues is to provide a means whereby the occasional
bids and offers for them tan automatically and regularly be
kept “in the market.” This is done in the inactive bond market
by a hollow circle of steel filing cabinets (referred to as a rule
as “cans” ) which are provided with flat indexed drawers, each
devoted to a particular inactive bond issue. When a bid or
offer for an inactive bond comes over the Exchange member's
telephone, the telephone clerk at once fills out a card for it
(Figure 19), which records the date, the name of the given
Stock Exchange house, the name of the bond, the number of
bonds involved, and the price. Cards containing offers are
headed “SELL” and are printed in red, while those for bids
are headed “Buy” and are printed in black. Orders good for
