Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-02
NEW STOCK TICKER
SERVICE STARTED
High-Speed Machines Equip
ped for High Volume
of Trading. n
BY PRESTON S. KRECKER.

Special DlSpatcn TO Inc star.
WALL STREET, New York, Septem-
Der 2-When trading was resumed on
the Stock Exchange today the stock
quotation service for the first time was
geared up to the pace of the new high
speed tickers installed by the exchange
for the service of its members and their
customers.
The new tickers have a capacity of
500 characters a minute, against 800
for the old-fashioned glass-domed in
strument which for so long has been the
accepted symbol of speculation. They
have been set up in more than 5000 Of
fees throughout the United States and
Canada, and $4,000 miles of wire are
required to transmit the quotations.
BY strange irony of fate the high
speed ticker has been installed just a
year too late to serve the immediate
purpose of its designers. AS long ago
as 1925 the governors of the Stock Ex-
change visualiZed future when the
market would boil over in an orgy of
speculation and faster quotation serv-
ice would be required to report the quo
tations. Perhaps they did not realize
how soon that day was to come, or pos
sibly they failed to use all possible ex-
petition in having engineers devise and
Importance of Ticker.
At all events, when the hour of need
arrived the ticker quotation service was
found wanting. On one memorable Gay
last Autumn it was four hours behind
the market.
Brokers then and since have con-
tended that, had the ticker been faster,
the force of the cataclysmic crash in the
market would have been softened and
the public would have saved millions of
dollars. There is no reason to doubt
that there would have been less conges-
ton in the quotation service, less delay
and therefore less Generalization had
the fast ticker been operating. When
nervous spectators are unable to ascer-
tain what the market for their stocks is
they are apt to lose their heads and
give market orders to sell at any price
and thereby intensity the confusion OF
panicky market.
However, even the new high-speed
ticker, with 9,000,0 00-Share capacity,
would have been unable to cope with
the torrent of selling on 100000
share day, such as ClimaXed the break
last Fall. The new quotation service,
indeed, represents a turnover of less
than per cent of the total number of
shares listed on the New York Stock
Exchange, which aggregate approx
mately 1900, 600 900. Nevertheless, 1t
represents a great step forward in quo
tation service.
Other Devices.
The new high-speed licked is only one
of the new devices now in use to re-
duce the element of time to a minimum
in giving quotations. With the depar-
ture of the old-fashioned glass-domed
emblem of speculation there also has
disappeared another symbol the chalk
blackboard. More than $50 brokerage
Offices in New York have substituted Tor
that Anticipated mechanism the new
teleregister board, which automatically
posts quotations as rapidly as the high
speed ticker clicks them out.
The Stock Exchange has tuned its
service up to higher tempo at time
when additionally the market quickens
its pace and business generally enjoys
expansion. Labor day marks the official
end of the vacation season.. Wall Street
this year has looked forward to the date
as marking the turning point not only
of the season, but possible also in the
depression which has beSet business.
This week by many is expected to prove
a test period which. if safely passed,
will augur better times both in the
markets and in trade. Returning f1nan-
ciers got right down to business today.
Directors of more than so different cor
porationS were scheduled to hold board
meetings.
Copyright. 1901