This section is from the book "The Investor's Catechism", by Marc M. Reynolds. Also available from Amazon: The Investor's Catechism.
Usually applied to bank stocks, though sometimes used in stocks of other corporations. The following plan is adopted to learn the book value of any particular stock:
Supposing the official statement of a bank shows surplus and undivided profits equal to 50% on the stock outstanding, then the book value of the stock is 100% plus 50% or a total of 150%. If the bank shows no net profits, but a deficit equal to 10% on the stock, then the book value of the stock would only be 90. The book value of stocks of other corporations is ascertained in the same manner, but it is more puzzling for the reason that it is not usually easy to ascertain the uniform facts regarding assets, liabilities, surplus, etc.
After the transfer books of the company are opened following the election or stockholders' meeting, the ownership of a security can be transferred on the records. While certificates can change hands at any time, they cannot be formally transferred from one holder to another during the period when the transfer books are closed.
One who executes orders in stocks, bonds or any securities for the purchase or sale of same. In real estate transactions he is called an agent.
A broker who makes a specialty of arbitrage business. Some New York Stock Exchange houses with London connections are called "arbitrage houses."
Some curb brokers arbitrage between San Francisco, New York and Boston.
One who makes a specialty of buying and selling bonds.
One who transacts business for his clients on commission only.
One who trades on the outside or curb market only.
One who buys and sells stocks outright for customers, for cash and not on margin; one who deals in dividend paying securities.
He is a dealer in coin, bullion and foreign exchange; usually a Stock Exchange member, whose business is the lending of money on call for financial banks.
A broker, not a member of an exchange, who deals in securities not dealt in on a stock exchange. A dealer in the outside market or on the curb is recognized as an outside broker. In New York such a broker is regular. In London, however an outside broker is not a member of the London Stock Exchange, and is sometimes classed as a bucket shopkeeper. Many English outside brokers do a legitimate business.
He is a member of the Stock Exchange who executes orders for fellow-members for a commission of $2 per hundred shares.
 
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