The term bull is applied to those who are purchasers of stock for long account, with the purpose of advancing prices, as the tendency of a bull is to elevate everything within his reach. The term bear is applied to those who sell stock short, with the purpose of depreciating values. The bear operates for a decline in prices. To buy one stock and sell another with the expectation that the one bought will advance and the one sold will decline, is a hedge. The broker's charge for his services is called a commission, which in the New York Stock Exchange is one-eighth of one per cent. each way on the par value of the security purchased or sold. A point means one per cent. on the par value of a stock bond.

Stock privileges or puts and calls are extensively dealt in abroad and to some extent here. A put is an agreement in the form of a written or printed contract filled out to suit the case, whereby the signer of it agrees to accept upon one day's notice, except on the day of expiration, a certain number of shares of a given stock at a stipulated price. A call is the reverse of a put, giving its owner the right to demand the stock under the same conditions. A put may serve as an insurance to an investor against a radical decline in the value of stock he owns; a call may be purchased by a man whose property is not immediately available, but who may desire to be placed in a position to procure the shares at the call price, if they are not below that in the open market when he secures the necessary funds.

The speculator usually trades on margins. If he has $500 to invest he buys $5,000 worth of stock, his $500 being ten per cent. of the total amount. He expects to sell again before the remaining amount falls due. The margin is usually placed by the speculator in the hands of a broker as a guaranty against loss. Although these brokers are really agents for others, yet on 'Change they stand in the mutual relationship of principals. A margin is merely a partial payment, but a broker buying stock for a client on margin is compelled to wholly pay for it. If he has not the necessary capital his usual custom is to borrow from banks or money-lenders, pledging the stock as collateral security.

On foreign exchanges the element of credit enters more largely into the conduct of business. Where the credit of the client in London is established, his broker does not, ordinarily, call on him for any cash until the next "settlement day."

There are a variety of methods of securing what is called a corner, that is, a controlling interest in marketable stocks which others are compelled, owing to previously made contracts, to buy.

A syndicate is a party of capitalists who unite their resources to accomplish some financial object, such as the purchase of a property, a public loan, an issue of bonds or stocks, or any other undertaking requiring large capital. A pool is in some respects similar to a syndicate. The funds of individuals are put into a common undertaking with a view of manipulating particular securities and dividing the profits. It savors of speculation if not of gambling.

A boom is an expansion of credit and a large inflation of value. A panic is an unusual fright among speculators which reduces prices and causes a general collapse of credit. A small boom is called a flurry.

The rules of the exchanges of New York forbid trading after closing hours, but in times of great financial excitement business overflows into the streets and hotels and is called trading on the curb. A wash sale is a fictitious transaction made by two members acting in collusion, for the purpose of swelling the volume of apparent business in a security, and thus giving a false impression of its value.

Stocks sell dividend-on between the time the dividend is declared and the day the books of the company close for transfer; after that they sell ex-dividend, in which case the dividend does not go to the buyer. When a company decides not to declare a dividend it is said to pass its dividend.

To sell stock buyer 3 is to give the buyer the privilege of taking it on the day of purchase, or on any of the three following days, without interest; and to sell stock seller 3 is to give the seller the privilege of delivering it on the day of purchase, or on any one of the three following days, without interest. Buyer 3 is a little lower, and seller 3 a little higher than regular way when the market is in a normal condition.

Bucket-shops are establishments conducted nominally for the transaction of a stock-exchange business, but really for the registration of bets or wagers, "usually for small amounts, on the rise or fall of the prices of stocks, there being no transfer or delivery of the commodities nominally dealt in. There were thousands of these counterfeit concerns throughout the country conducted without any regard for legitimate commercial enterprises.