17 Мировая экономика

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Midwest Stock Exchange (in Chicago), the Pacific Stock Exchange (in Los Angeles and San Francisco),

and the exchanges in Boston, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati.

Not all stocks trade on the exchanges. To be traded on the NYSE, a stock must be listed. This is

the procedure by which a stock qualifies for trading. Only the most reliable corporate stocks are

listed in the NYSE — securities offered by IBM, General Motors, AT&T, and similar companies.

The term OTC is used when the trading of securities does not take place through the stock exchanges.

The OTC market is very large and exists in all parts of the United States. The companies whose

securities are traded are often smaller, new, or riskier, or they may not meet listing requirements. In

addition to stocks, the OTC market handles nearly all trading in government bonds, all municipal bond

trading, and most corporate bond trading. There was no sure way to determine the best price for a stock

In otc trading until 1970. In that year the National Association of Securities Dealers introduced an

automated quotation system that used computers to link OTC dealers in markets around the country:

Called NASDAQ, the system has made OTC trading more visible to the public.

Investors buy listed stocks through brokers, who are officially known as registered representatives.

To buy a stock, an investor must have an account with a broker. The broker calls a member of

his firm who has a seat on the NYSE. The floor broker at the NYSE goes to the counter at which the

stock is traded. Stocks are bought and sold by a process of auction bidding. Buyers and sellers,

represented by floor brokers, compete for the best price. Once an agreement to buy or sell has been

reached between the floor broker and the trader, the news is relayed back to the brokerage firm and

then to the customer.

On the NYSE floor brokers are specialists in each stock. Among their functions are the buying

or selling of stock when there are no other offers. This helps stabilize the market so it will not be

subject to great fluctuations.

Much stock buying is done on margin — the buyer only has to pay a portion of the stock price at

purchase time. The margin requirements vary, but they have generally been about 50 percent. If a

buyer has overloaded his account with margin purchases and the market falls, he is required to

deposit additional money or face being forced out of his position. This is called margin maintenance.

It is the inability to deposit additional funds that causes the great investor losses during a

market collapse, because buying on margin is essentially obtaining a loan from the broker — who

In turn borrows from a bank. The loan must be repaid, even at the risk of personal bankruptcy.

As a guide to stock market trends, various organizations compile market averages. The most

widely known is the Dow Jones industrial average, compiled by Dow Jones & Company, the publisher

of the Wall Street Journal. Standard & Poor’s Corporation and the New York and American

exchanges list market averages constructed on a broader base than the Dow. The terms bull and

bear are used to describe upward and downward market trends.

Newspapers carry daily reports of market activity. These reports give information on the previous

day’s trading for each stock and bond on all the exchanges and on the OTC, or NASDAQ, market.