The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-10-06
STOCK EXCHANGE SEEKS TO CURB
 SPECULATION
Higher Margins Asked For Many Stocks Expected
 By War Boom

: J W e-A
 New York. Oct 6.-AIarmed by the frenzy of speculation in stocks of com panies making war munitions. which had been gaining in violence for ten days, the Stock Exchange took meas ares yesterday to reduce public par !ticipat1on in the market. At the same time individua1s members of the axchange set out on their own ac- acOunt to correct the trading situation. xn0ved by a growing fear that prices were being advanced so fast that a collapse might occur without prelimi-l nary warning
 Officially, the governors did nothing more than issue circular to members (which reclted a ruling of 1910 to the effect that all essential facts about tpersons for whom they did business should be obtained. The members of the exchange went considerably fur tther on their own account They Fais- led the amount of mar rgins for carry Sing stocks, some as high as 100 per cent. and told many customers in fplain terms that they would better ttAke their profits in such stocks as Baldwin Locomotfve. Westinghous FCrucib1e Steel, and devote their at Etention for time to less dangerous tissues
 It could not, be learned that the
  Eprelinfnary arrangement The feel-a ling evident at the close of last weeks lBeriss of Tremendous trading days fAkat the market was becoming top fheavys crystal1Ized yesterday in a gem era1 movement to prevent a disastrous snnash- Previously many firms had t<arr4ed customers in Baldwin, Cruci-# Ft1e Steel and similar issues with mar \ gins of 20 points a share, which was lRrom to Q points higher than the sunargdn required for United States Steel but before the opening eyester- Eeion houses were informed that the sxnargin Hereafter would be 40 points. kThe holders of these stocks, who had bought previously were also asked gto bring their margin up to the new ll@wel
 War Stocks Sen off Sharply.
 The result of. this drastic change in ling movement. largely brought about through the unloading Of stock whose owners could not put kup the addi- Etlona1 margin The market quickly broke from to more than 10 points. with the war stocks displaying the table shows the decline of the issues most affected by the margin rule:
 Gross. Net Last
 Decline Decline Price "A xIA- sSazI7 cC n 4 12 Am Loco. AZ e7N Bald. Loco. 95x 75k 114 Beth Steel D. AZ s90K Cruclble Steel 7A s5l Gen. Electric e6h 4sk 176 z Lack seel 5A sA sig N. '. Am. Brake 5 57 151 E Westinghouse PA 132
 A collateral effort to curb specuIa.- ton was made by d number Of deal- CTS in odd lotss who sent out notices before the opening that hereafter fractional lots of stock bought from them by other brokers would be one quarter of a point higher than the pr1c@ of 400 shares of the same stock 1t the same time. The normal differ 2 ence between odd and full lots of letOck is oneAeighth of 9. point. The avoWed purpose of the dealers in de- crease the cost of speculation on the buying side and bring about a del cline in the number of buying orders h for small lots daily received in the market The diference on the sell ing side was allowed to remain at one-eighHh of per cent.
 Ban Speculation by Clerks
 Not all of the odd lot dealers adopt ed this change. which was permitted by ruling by the Exchange authori- ties Hast winter. when business was dull and the odd lot men were n1ak- IL g kI1f1t4 HfOnlS unQGFa the One-e1RhthI rule. At that time competition soon caused reaction to the original method and the same thing is ex-l pected to happen again when trading grows lighter. The higher figure was made necessary, it was said by so great an increase in odd lot trad-I Ing last week that the dealers were swept off their feet
 While the Governors declined to comment on their circular distributed in the afternoon, it was understood | to have resulted from an investiga- tion carried on quietly by the Busi- mess Conduct Committee. The cir | cu1ar was headed sIInportant No-l tice,v and in it the members were requested to adnronish the managers | of their branch offices especially to abide by the ruling of March 10, 1910I that employees of banks Insurance I houses should not be permitted tol speculate without consent of their ern- 4ployers- This regulation in regard | ito margins was also append ed:
 Resolved. That the Ehaceptance and l carrying of an account forsa custom CT, either a member or Q non-rner11 Der | without proper and adequate margin, | may constitute an act detrimental to | the interest and weIfar of the E1-1 may be proceeded against under Sec-i ton g. Article XVII, Of the constitu- ton
 No additional margins were req1ifr- ed for dealings in the standard raiIs.I or in such industria.ls as have not felt the stimulus of widely circuIated tips about huge war profits
 PORPOISES SEEN IN
 T