THRILLS OF WALL STREET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20075, 12 October 1928, Page 11

THRILLS OF WALL STREET.

HOW SALES ARE MADE. A BRITISHER'S IMPRESSION. [FP.OM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] NEW YORK. Sept. 19. A Britisher's impression of Wall Street, as recounted in the Canadian press, is appended:— "Immense and intricate confusion one notices at first sight. A babel of voices rises unceasingly. Brokers rush about or stand in excited groups round the trading posts. Uniformed reporters of sales add to the volume of movement as they rush from broker to ticker operator. Big electric call-boards continuously flap their numbered calls to brokers wanted at private telephones. Hundreds of telephones it) booths at each end of the floor are kept busy with clerks writing orders. The floor is strewn with paper'. "Behind the confusion is a simple procedure. The lay visitor, on entering, is given a booklet, so that he may understand how orders are handled. Let u« follow an order through the Exchange. A man wants to buy 100 shares of United States Steel at current price. His order in Chicago is transmitted by private wire to the firm's New York office, and telephoned at once to the floor of the Exchange, where a clerk receives it at one of the hundreds of telephones. The clerk writes the order on a slip of paper, pushes a button which operates tiio broker's number on tho annunciator board, and tho broker immediately picks, up the order. ■ "Post No. S was tho post for all United States Steel trading. At other trading posts were other listed stocks. Arriving at Post 9, the broker learns what is offered and bid on United States Steel. By the simple words, 'Take it' he buys at the lowest price offering. No written agreement or memorandum passes between the brokers. All contracts on the floor of the Exchange, involving £20,000,000 a day, are made in this manner, yet they are regarded by brokers as inviolable. "The broker sends to his telephone clerk a memorandum that he has bought 100 shares. The clerk telephones the report to the company's office, which wires it to Chicago. All this takes place more swiftly than it is*written here. There are instances of orders given in San Francisco, executed on the Exchange, and reported" back to the customer within 60 seconds. The real excitement occurs when there is a rapid change in prices, or when the volume of a day's sales run to over 4,000,000 shares, as it has been doing in the continued bear market lately."