tions is the purchase and sale of listed securities, and the manner in which this must be performed is practically the same on all American Stock Exchanges, and is in general as follows.
By the rules of every Stock Exchange its members are only permitted to deal with one another "on the Exchange" between certain hours of every business day. Between these hours the members congregate "on the floor" of the Exchange and are permitted then and there to offer and to accept offers to buy or to sell securities for cash. These offers and acceptances are made by word of mouth or merely by customary signs. In making or accepting one of these offers a stockbroker always acts as if he were acting for himself only,[1] even though he may actually be acting as an agent, and thus the contract which results when an offer is accepted is on its face a contract only between the two stockbrokers.
The nature of these contracts must depend on the nature of the offers in which they originate. All these offers are of the same general description, being offers either to buy ("bids for") or offers to sell a specific amount of securities for a money price, which is understood to be payable in all cases on the delivery of the securities. Every offer expressly or impliedly states when such delivery shall or may be "made" by the selling stockbroker or may be "called" (demanded) by the buying stockbroker.
There is a variety of "deliveries," so called, permitted by the rules of every Stock Exchange, for any one of which either an offer to buy or an offer to sell securities may be made. The usual[2] "deliveries" are as follows.
(1) Offers to buy or to sell "for cash."
If an offer to buy or to sell "for cash" is accepted the rules of all Stock Exchanges fix a particular time in the same business day in which the contract is made before which delivery of the securities must be made by the seller.
(2) Offers to buy or to sell in the "regular way" or "regular." If an offer to buy or to sell "regular" is accepted, the rules of all Stock Exchanges fix a particular time in some particular busi-
- ↑ If the stockbroker is acting for a fellow member of his Stock Exchange, he may, if such fellow member is willing, "give up" such fellow member in his place as a principal if the stockbroker with whom he is contracting does not object. If the stockbroker is acting for an outsider, he cannot give him up as a principal and at all times carefully conceals his identity. The custom of dealing in this way has been held to be "reasonable." Whitehouse v. Moore, 13 Abb. Pr. (N .Y.) 42; Peckham v. Ketcham, 10 Abb. Pr. (N. Y.) 220; s. c. 5 Bos. (N. Y.) 506; Horton v. Morgan, 19 N. Y. 170.
- ↑ All Stock Exchanges do not allow all of the deliveries stated in the text, though the New York Stock Exchange does.
