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 Clearing
 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 settlement
 is a forbidding one, particularly in the Wall Street district—the
 most congested section in the whole world.
A second obstacle consists in the factor of expense. Presumably
 the economies effected by central clearance and settlement
 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 difficult
 to persuade the stockbroker to pay fees to a stock clearing
 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 Corporation
 can now be summarized briefly.
I. By supervising the process of comparisons, what
amounts to an audit is made of practically all transactions effected
 on the Stock Exchange, resulting in the speedy discovery
38 See Chapter IX, p. 252.