The Stock Market

The tremendous activity on the New York Stock Exchange has established several new records. On Nov. 6 there were 613 separate stock issues traded in--the most in any single day on record. Many strange and unusual abbreviations appeared on the ticker. Issues were traded in that have not seen the light for years.

Daily volume has also exceeded all figures back to at least 1916. Several days have seen about 2,800,000 shares sold on the Exchange, with a three-million-share day seemingly in the offing. The record for daily trading was established on May 9, 1901, on the occasion of the sensational Northern Pacific corner, when over 3,330,000 shares were sold.

It must be remembered that these statistics of daily sales on the Exchange, apart from being somewhat hastily compiled by newspapers from the stock tape, are defective for another reason. Only sales of 100 shares or multiples thereof are regularly put on the tape. Hence, sales of "odd lots"--that is, amounts of from 1 to 99 shares--are not included in ordinary calculations of sales on the Exchange. In recent years, individual sales in odd lots have equaled or outnumbered sales of 100 shares, while odd lot sales constitute an additional third to the published total of 100-share sales. Thus, on a day when the stock tape shows sales of 2,800,000 shares, actual total sales really are running close to four millions. Consequently, activity on the Stock Exchange is now greater than ever before.

No less than fifty prominent corporations saw their shares selling at a record high price for the year. U. S. Steel common smashed all its previous high records, leaped to 138, and sold at that figure in tremendous volume.