STOCKBROKER, an agent who deals in stocks and shares. He need not be a member of any recognized stock exchange, nor of an association of stock exchanges. He need not confine his energies to dealing in only such securities as those which are quoted in a stock exchange. The broker-member of the London stock exchange is an agent for the buying and the selling of stocks and shares of any description, and his status is kept strictly clear from that of a stockjobber, so far as the Lon don stock exchange rules are concerned. The broker, if a stock exchange member, acts as an agent; seldom as a principal. He does not as a rule buy from a client nor sell to a client. He buys or sells on behalf of the client, and takes a certain amount of com mission, the extent of which is laid down in stock exchange rules for members of the stock exchange as his remuneration for doing the business. He is not allowed, in the London stock exchange, to buy too shares from a client say at L5 and sell them simul taneously to another client at L5 5s. To do this would be acting as a principal, the part assigned to a stockjobber.
The young man who would become a broker in a London stock exchange usually finds that a good way of achieving his end is to obtain a seat in the office of a stock exchange firm, entering either as a junior or a clerk, and gradually working his way through the various stages which stand between the outsider and the full blown member of the stock exchange. He can become a member without delay, provided he is not less than 21 years of age and is able to obtain three sureties who will guarantee, in the sum of £500 each, the fulfilment of his obligations for four years from the date of his admission. If the candidate has served as a clerk in the stock exchange for four years previously to the lodging of his application-form, two sureties, or recommenders, only are re quired, who must each enter into an obligation as above mentioned, but for £300 apiece. The scale of the London stock exchange charges, both for admission fee and annual subscription, is sub stantially less in the case of the experienced man. The candidate for membership must obtain with a very small proportion of ex ceptions, a nomination, the price of which varies considerably. When first created some years before the war, a nomination reached the value of £700. After the war, nominations became
at one time practically valueless. Several are known to have changed hands at L5 apiece. After that an improvement set in, and the price rose to about £200, but it varies very widely.
Strict rules govern the stockbroker in the London stock ex change, and some of the provincial stock exchanges have modelled their rules upon them. He must be a British subject; he has to apply for re-election every year; he must state whether he intends to act as broker or jobber; he must not be a principal in any busi ness other than that of stock exchange, nor must he be member of; or subscriber to, any other institution where dealings in stocks and shares are carried on. His wife, also, must not be engaged in business. His duties bring him into contact with his clients, and with brokers and jobbers alike, and he acts as agent between the public on one side and members of the stock exchange on the other. He is required to have a general knowledge of all the mar kets in which he is called upon to deal, and he must be prepared to give reasonable answers to the hundreds of questions with which he is plied on all sorts of subjects. The broker's life is more arduous than that of a jobber, involving longer hours and the ex ercise of unlimited patience, for he has to make allowance for the fact that the majority of his clients do not grasp the intimate details of what is after all a very technical business. His first daily duty, after having digested the financial parts of his news paper, is to deal with the correspondence that has reached him, and extract from it the orders that he will take into the stock ex change for execution when the markets open. Bargains can be officially recorded from 10.3o a.m. to 3.3o p.m. He, the broker, buys or sells War loan in one market, Kafirs in another, artificial silks in another, going through various parts of the House that have no strict delimitations, one market impinging on the next. The men round the markets who deal in specialized stocks and shares are the jobbers, and to them the broker proceeds, knowing that he will be able to get a double price made to him, at the higher of which he can buy and at the lower of which he can sell without the jobber knowing in advance which of the two courses the broker will take in executing his client's order.