MONEY CLEARANCE AND SETTLEMENT 405 
of the loss after the collection by it of the pro rata assessments 
against the original contracting parties. 
Odd-Lot Clearance and Settlement.—Thus far, two stub: 
born obstacles have prevented the expansion of the Stock Clear- 
ing Corporation into the field of clearing and settling odd-lot 
transactions. The first of these relates to the great office space 
which the work weuld require. It must be remembered that to 
a stock clearing system, the number of separate transactions 
rather than their size is the determining factor in operations. 
Now odd-lot transactions, although they constitute roughly 30% 
of the total shares sold on the Exchange each day,*® are probably 
even more numerous than round lot transactions. Thus, the 
undertaking to provide quarters for their clearance and settle- 
ment is a forbidding one, particularly in the Wall Street dis- 
trict—the most congested section in the whole world. 
A second obstacle consists in the factor of expense. Pre- 
sumably the economies effected by central clearance and settle- 
ment per share handled would be smaller with odd-lot than 
round lot transactions, while the overhead expenses entailed by 
the work would necessarily be heavy. Yet, as matters stand, 
odd-lot houses clear such trades for brokerage firms on their 
sheets without service charges.!” It is therefore somewhat dif- 
ficult to persuade the stockbroker to pay fees to a stock clear- 
ing house for clearance and settlement of odd-lot transactions 
which at present he obtains for nothing from the odd-lot houses 
themselves. 
Services of the Stock Clearing Corporation.—The specific 
benefits derived by the financial community from the several 
species of operations performed by the Stock Clearing Corpora- 
tion can now be summarized briefly. 
I. By supervising the process of comparisons, what 
amounts to an audit is made of practically all transactions ef- 
fected on the Stock Exchange, resulting in the speedy discovery 
38 See Chapter IX, p. 252.