164 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE
dials and price slips, a broker or dealer on the floor can speedily
acquaint himself not only with recent selling prices, but also
with the latest price, for any particular listed stock issue.
[nside each stock post are stationed several clerks, who
assist specialists’? record orders to buy or sell inactive stocks,
man the tube system, and perform other useful functions.
Attached to each post is also a quotation clerk who, upon
request, obtains from the floor members at his post the latest
hids and offers for a given issue, and reports them through a
~entral station to Stock Exchange offices in the financial district.
“What's Steel?”—When Jenkins first arrives at the Steel
host, he learns from the indicator and slip attached to the post
‘hat Steel common opened that day at 14934 and that its last
recorded sale was at 15034. But in order to obtain the abso-
lutely latest information on the “market” for Steel, Jenkins
thrusts his way into the Steel crowd, which is crying out bid
and offer prices at which they will buy or sell the stock, and
inquires, “What's Steel?” The specialist, who concentrates all
his attention on this particular stock and consequently is thor-
bughly familiar with the subject, tells him, “150 bid, offered at
14,” or perhaps replies simply “fifty to an eighth”—a shorter
way of saying the same thing. In other words, the most any
buyer at that particular moment is willing to pay for the stock
is $150 a share, while the least any seller will take for it is
$150.125 a share.
Jenkins’ order is limited at 150—that is, he must sell his
customer’s stock for 150 or more. If this limit were far away
from the market—say, at 200—the chances are that consid-
erable time might elapse (perhaps indeed a number of years)
before market conditions would make it possible for him to
sell the stock at that price. In such a case Jenkins would
probably leave the order with the specialist in Steel, who would
‘nscribe the offer of 200 in his book.** Since the specialist
12 See Chapter VIII, p. 218.
8 See Chapter VIII. p. 220.
