Most stock exchanges are auction markets, in which prices are determined by competitive bidding. In very large, active markets, the auction is continuous, occurring throughout the day’s trading session and for any security in which there is buying and selling interest. In smaller markets the names of the listed stocks may be submitted in some form of rotation, with the auction occurring at that time; this process is described as a “call market.”

Trading methods on all the exchanges in the United States are similar. In a typical transaction for a security listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a customer gives an order to an employee in a branch or correspondent office of a member firm, who transmits it either indirectly through the firm’s New York office or, as is becoming increasingly common, directly to a receiving clerk on the floor of the exchange. The receiving clerk summons the firm’s floor broker, who takes the order, goes to the post where the stock is traded, and participates in an auction procedure as either buyer or seller. If the order is not a market order calling for immediate action, the broker turns it over to an appropriate specialist who will execute it when an indicated price is reached.

As in any auction market, securities are sold to the broker bidding the highest price and bought from the broker offering the lowest price. Since the market is continuous, buyers and sellers are constantly competing with each other. In the New York Stock Exchange, the specialist plays an important role. As a principal, he has the responsibility of buying and selling for his own account, thereby providing a stabilizing influence; as an agent, he represents other brokers on both sides of the market when they have orders at prices that cannot be readily executed.

With the growing demand for stocks on the part of institutions such as insurance companies, mutual funds, pension funds, and so forth, the size of orders consummated on the New York Stock Exchange has grown. The common way of handling these big blocks on the floor of the exchange has been to break them into smaller orders executed over a period of time. Another method is to assemble matching orders in advance and then “cross” them, executing the purchase or sale at current prices in accordance with prescribed rules; since the broker initially may have obtained the matching orders off the floor, this procedure assumes some of the aspects of a negotiated rather than a pure auction transaction. It is only a step from this to so-called block positioning, in which the broker functions as a principal and actually buys the block from the seller and distributes the securities over a period of time on the floor of the exchange.

When none of these methods appears feasible, the exchange permits certain special procedures. A secondary distribution of stock resembles the underwriting of a new issue, the block being handled by a selling group or syndicate off the floor after trading hours, at a price regulated by the exchange. In an exchange distribution a member firm accumulates the necessary buy orders and then crosses them on the floor. This is distinguished from an ordinary “cross” because the selling broker may provide extra compensation to his own registered representatives and to other participating firms. A special offering is the offering of a block through the facilities of the exchange at a price not in excess of the last sale or the current offer, whichever is lower, but not below the current bid unless special permission is obtained. The terms of the offer are flashed on the tape. The offerer agrees to pay a special commission. A specialist block purchase permits the specialist to buy a block outside the regular market procedure, at a price that is somewhat below the current bid.

Trading on the London Stock Exchange is carried on through a unique system of brokers and jobbers. A broker acts as an agent for his customers; a jobber, or dealer, transacts business on the floor of the exchange but does not deal with the public. A customer gives an order to a brokerage house, which relays it to the floor for execution. The receiving broker goes to the area where the security is traded and seeks a jobber stationed in the vicinity who specializes in the particular issue. The jobber serves only in the capacity of a principal, buying and selling for his own account and dealing only with brokers or other jobbers. The broker asks the jobber’s current prices without revealing whether he is interested in buying or selling. The broker may seek to narrow the spread between the bid and ask quotations or he may approach another jobber handling the same issue and undertake the same bargaining process. Eventually, when satisfied that he has obtained the best possible price for his client, the broker will complete the bargain.

A broker is compensated by the commission received from the customer. The jobber seeks to maximize his profitable business by adjusting his buying and selling prices. As the ultimate dealer in the London market, the jobber’s activities provide a stabilizing factor, but unlike the specialist on the New York Stock Exchange, the jobber is under no obligation to help support prices. The growing importance of institutional customers has increased the size of transactions in the London market as it has in the U.S., and therefore the jobber has been compelled to risk larger sums. To offset this risk, arrangements for a particularly large order may be negotiated beforehand and the transaction put through the floor as a matter of procedure, with the jobber accepting a minimum “turn.” Although the jobbing system provides a continuous market, it does not employ the auction bidding of the New York exchange.

The trading procedures of other major exchanges throughout the world employ the principles that have been described above, although they vary in their application of them. In the exchanges of Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Zürich, some form of auction system is employed: prices are established through bids and offers made on specific securities at particular periods of time. In Tokyo, trading is continuous and orders are consummated through the saitori members, who keep order sheets on all transactions. Unlike the specialist on the New York exchange or the jobber in London, however, the saitori does not trade for his own account but serves only as an intermediary between regular members. In Amsterdam, trading in active securities is done directly between members during designated trading periods; specialists function as intermediaries between buyers and sellers.