Wall Street 1929 Part 6
On a 5,000,000 share day on the Big Board, nearly $200,000,000 worth of buying and selling pulses through these steel highways. This is not the total business. Merely the 30 per cent that the citizenry removed from Wall Street contributes to the day’s volume as a rule.
By itself this fact impresses as to the extent of Wall Street’s quiet penetration into the hinterland. The Wall Street brokerage house of fifteen years ago whose out-of-town business averaged 15 per cent was unusual. Today there are a number of great houses in Wall Street whose wire business—that is to say, their out-of-town business—makes up the bulk of its orders.
Improved communications have provided a high speed channel for the country’s inspired speculative hopes.
The growth of the “odd lot” business is another remarkable phase of this flowering. Time was when the more elegant houses in the financial district contemplated with faint distaste such poor men’s dabbling. But nowadays the nicest houses cultivate them. They comprise about 40 per cent of the Stock Exchange’s daily business.
Speaking broadly, “odd lots” mean the public. It is a device of vicarious trade by means of which the rest of us, who can’t afford to purchase the lowest unit of trade—100 shares—allowed on the Exchange, are enabled to buy and sell in fractions. Theoretically, there is no such thing as an “odd lot” transaction. The ticker tape never records one.
But actually these “odd lots” are the most vigorous single element in the great bull market. Their combined buying and selling power is Niagric; beside it, the resources of the colorful traders who once dominated the market stand dwarfed. “Odd lots” mean that Mr. and Mrs. Jones are in Wall Street.
Source: The Outlook, 18 September 1929
Related posts:
- Wall Street 1929 Part 7
- Wall Street 1929 Part 3
- Wall Street 1929 Part 5
- Wall Street 1929 Part 2
- Wall Street 1929 Part 4
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
