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So the ticker-tapes (which I only know from old time movies) really reported on every single transaction that occurred within the stock exchange? I assume that'

by folli 5y ago

So the ticker-tapes (which I only know from old time movies) really reported on every single transaction that occurred within the stock exchange? I assume that's quite a lot of data that was processed, even 70 years ago?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
> every single transaction that occurred within the stock exchange? Yes > I assume that's quite a lot of data that was processed, even 70 years ago? “The New York Stock Exchange in 1954 had the most prosperous year since 1933 with its volume of business totaling 573,374,622 shares. This compared with 354,851,325 shares traded in 1953.” https://www.nytimes.com/1955/01/01/archives/54-stock-market-busiest-since-33-573374622-shares-dealt-in-on-new.html https://www.nytimes.com/1955/01/01/archives/54-stock-market-... So in 1953, not even 1 million shares per day traded on average.
- dragontamer 5y ago
  The cartoon talks about odd-lots and round-lots for a reason. Odd-lots would not occur on the exchange. The "local" broker will handle odd lots, group them up into round lots, and only once a large enough round-lot was collected would the broker call up NYSE and actually do the exchange. ------ For example, if Alice was selling 32 shares of FOO, and Bob was buying 10 shares of FOO, the local broker would give Bob 10 shares (from Alice), and then take the remaining 22-shares for themselves. It was somewhat risky because if the share price changes dramatically, the broker could lose money... but this risk was compensated by brokerage fees. Eventually, Eve sells another 180 shares, meaning the brokerage now has 202 shares on hand. At this point the brokerage would telephone in to NYSE that they're selling 2 round lots of FOO. Once the broker confirms the sell order, they hand the money to Eve, and are left with a 2-share odd lot for themselves. --------- A brokerage could hold some stock in larger quantities if they were very popular in a town. Maybe Detroit has a lot of Ford / General Motors traders for example, so the local brokerage in Detroit would hold more Ford / GM to help speed up transactions. When transacting with odd lots, they simply use the last price on the ticker-tape.

by folli 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago

> every single transaction that occurred within the stock exchange? Yes > I assume that's quite a lot of data that was processed, even 70 years ago? “The New York Stock Exchange in 1954 had the most prosperous year since 1933 with its volume of business totaling 573,374,622 shares. This compared with 354,851,325 shares traded in 1953.” https://www.nytimes.com/1955/01/01/archives/54-stock-market-busiest-since-33-573374622-shares-dealt-in-on-new.html https://www.nytimes.com/1955/01/01/archives/54-stock-market-... So in 1953, not even 1 million shares per day traded on average.

dragontamer 5y ago
The cartoon talks about odd-lots and round-lots for a reason. Odd-lots would not occur on the exchange. The "local" broker will handle odd lots, group them up into round lots, and only once a large enough round-lot was collected would the broker call up NYSE and actually do the exchange. ------ For example, if Alice was selling 32 shares of FOO, and Bob was buying 10 shares of FOO, the local broker would give Bob 10 shares (from Alice), and then take the remaining 22-shares for themselves. It was somewhat risky because if the share price changes dramatically, the broker could lose money... but this risk was compensated by brokerage fees. Eventually, Eve sells another 180 shares, meaning the brokerage now has 202 shares on hand. At this point the brokerage would telephone in to NYSE that they're selling 2 round lots of FOO. Once the broker confirms the sell order, they hand the money to Eve, and are left with a 2-share odd lot for themselves. --------- A brokerage could hold some stock in larger quantities if they were very popular in a town. Maybe Detroit has a lot of Ford / General Motors traders for example, so the local brokerage in Detroit would hold more Ford / GM to help speed up transactions. When transacting with odd lots, they simply use the last price on the ticker-tape.