On carrying-over day it has to be decided whether the bargain is to be completed; if this is not convenient, the settlement of the bargain is postponed till the next account by the following process: We will suppose that a broker has bought £500 Caledonian Railway Stock at 101, and when the next settling day comes his client is unwilling to pay for it, since he believes the price will shortly rise, and that he can sell and profit to the extent of the difference. The broker goes to the jobber he has bought from, or to any jobber if necessary, and sells it back at the current price at 12 o'clock on the carrying-over day, called the "making-up" price, at the same time contracting to buy it again at the same price for the next ensuing account. Say the making-up price is 99. The broker's client will pay the difference of £10 on the £500 stock at once, and the payment of the remaining £495 will be postponed till the next account. Besides this the buyer will have to pay interest for the fortnight's postponement of payment at a rate called the "contango rate." It sometimes happens that there nave been a great many sales of a particular security and that it is difficult to obtain stock to deliver to the buyers. In this case very often it is the sellers who are anxious to carry over the bargains, and instead of the buyer having to pay interest for the postponement of payment, the seller may offer to pay the buyer a premium for the privilege of carrying over. In this case the rate is called a "backwardation" or "back." It must not be imagined, however, that if a seller is unwilling to deliver that he will necessarily have to pay backwardation. Whether he is paid a contango or has to pay backwardation depends, not upon the individual bargain, but upon the general relations of demand to supply in the particular security. Briefly stated, if there is a "bull" account in the security contango rates will prevail; if a "bear "account, backwardation will be more in evidence.

These terms demand a few words of explanation.

The words in use on the Stock Exchange are strangely suggestive of a menagerie, and to tell the truth, if rumour speaks true, the House behaves at times more like a menagerie than a society of highly respectable business men. Anyhow, we hear of "bulls," "bears," "stags," "guinea pigs," "kangaroos," "wild cats," and "lame ducks," among other members of the animal kingdom. A "bull" is a man who has bought securities which he does not intend to "take up" and pay for, but hopes to sell at a higher price and profit by the difference; in short, a bull "buys for the rise."

A "bear," on the other hand, is one who has sold securities which he does not intend to deliver, but hopes to buy back at a lower price. He has "sold for the fall."

All Stock Exchange business can be divided into two main classes. There is the class of business entered into by the investing public, who buy securities which they pay for at the next account and hold as an investment, or who will sell stock only which they possess, because they require the money for some purpose.

The other class of business is that carried on by the regular operators on the Stock Exchange who deal in stocks which they never intend taking up or delivering as the case may be, but whose object is to make a profit from the differences between the prices at which they buy and those at which they sell. These are the speculative classes, to which belong the bulls and bears. If in the course of an account, that is, between one settling day and another, bull operations have predominated in any group of securities, it is said to be a bull account, and contango rates will prevail. Similarly, if it is a bear account, there will be many brokers who have sold but are unwilling or unable to deliver, and backwardation rates will prevail.

Many of the rather sensational reports which emanate from the Stock Exchange are the direct result of bull or bear accounts, and are circulated with the object of inducing the public to buy or sell, as the case may be, in order to make the price of certain securities rise or fall.

It may be remarked that since it is considered unadvisable that bank shares should be subject to speculative influences, and in order that, owing to the heavy liabilities of the banks to the public, the shares should, as far as possible, be held by the investing classes, an Act called " Leeman's Act' was passed in 1867, according to the terms of which all contracts for the purchase or sale of the shares of joint stock banks, must mention the registered numbers of the shares. This was intended to prevent operators selling shares which they did not possess; but the Act is often disregarded and is practically a dead letter.

Bull operations do not necessarily have the effect of sending up prices, even for a sufficient period for the operators to realise; neither do bear operations always have the reverse effect. If bulls have bought and the anticipated rise does not come, they may be compelled to sell at a loss, and this forced selling will probably send prices down rapidly. The market very often knows that there is a heavy bull or bear account in a particular security, and, anticipating a re-action, they hold off and await events before buying or selling as the case may be.

After the carrying-over day comes the "ticket-day" or "name day," which is devoted to finding out who is going ultimately to take up or deliver securities which have been dealt in during the account. It takes its name from the tickets which are passed through the Settling Department or Clearing House of the Stock Exchange. The last day is the "pay day," all differences being paid by crossed cheques on a Clearing banker.

A few words are necessary as to the quotations of prices. When a bargain is struck between a broker and a jobber, either may have the bargain "marked," in which case the price at which it was effected is posted publicly on a board. These prices are telegraphed to the evening papers by the Exchange Telegraph Company, who are allowed to be in the House for this purpose; they are called "tape prices," the word being taken from the long strips of paper on which the reproducing machines of the Exchange Telegraph Company record their telegrams. The Stock Exchange publish a daily official list of the more important securities dealt in. The right to be quoted in this list is only granted to companies which comply with certain regulations as to the allotment and registration of capital.

The official list, which is the basis of that appearing in the morning papers, contains two principal columns, those of the "business done" and of the "closing prices."

The first consists of the prices of actual bargains which have been marked during the day, and is a better indication of the real level of prices than the second. The closing prices are often little more than nominal; it may be that no dealings have taken place in a particular security for several days, and in this case the closing price would be either that of the last bargain made, or an approximate calculation of what the price is likely to be.

It will be noticed that some prices are marked with the letters "x.d.," i.e., ex dividend. It is a general rule on the Stock Exchange that securities are sold with the accruing or declared dividend up to the time the shares or the stock are quoted ex div. Most companies close their books for a short period while the dividend warrants are being prepared, and will not register a transfer. The warrants are posted to the holder registered at the time of closing the books, but if he has in the meantime sold his shares or stock before the price is quoted ex div., he must surrender the dividend to the buyer. As a rule prices are quoted ex div. at the beginning of the account following the declaration of the dividend, bearer securities, however, being marked x.d. on the day the dividend is payable, and the price in either case falls to the extent of the dividend just paid. The terms "ex interest" and "ex rights' have a similar application, the latter usually referring to the right to subscribe to a new issue of capital, preference in such cases being often given to the holders of the original capital, to the exclusion of the public.