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SPECULATIVE TRANSACTIONS IN 1926 MAY WHEAT FUTURE 37 
For the two large traders whose transactions are shown in Figure 8, 
time records were not complete. For trader No. 1, no record was 
kept by the firms handling his business of the time his orders were 
filed or executed. In fact, no written orders were used by this trader 
in making his sales that day. His orders were given orally to the 
brokers and records of amounts and pricés obtained later from the 
brokers’ cards. For trader No. 3, time records were available for 
most of his business, though not as close to the time at which the 
trades were made in the pit as might be expected. When taken in 
conjunction with the price, however, the time of execution could be 
identified within fairly narrow limits. For trader No. 1, time of 
execution could be determined by the price, but only within com- 
paratively wide limits and these are indicated on the chart by means 
of arrows. 
Figure 8 shows, by intervals of one minute, just when the small 
and medium-sized orders, representative of the ‘‘general public,” 
came on the market. It shows at what time the purchases were 
made (indicated by arrows upward) and at what time the sales were 
made (indicated by arrows downward). It also shows the quantity 
and the number of purchases and sales each moment in comparison 
with the movement in price together with the sales and purchases of 
the two large traders. One observation to be made is that the pur- 
chases by the small traders greatly exceeded the sales. For this 
particular day the combined purchases of the small traders amounted 
to 7,152,000 bushels, while the sales amounted to only 3,351,000 
bushels. On the other hand traders No. 1 and No. 3 combined sold 
10,500,000 bushels and brought 500,000 bushels. The fact that the 
purchases by the small traders exceeded the sales is in line with the 
usual practice of small traders, coming into the market on small 
recessions in anticipation of a reaction. 
Another observation is that with each downward price movement 
there follows a noticeable increase in buying and selling by the small 
traders. These buying and selling “waves,” it will be observed, do 
not occur while the downward ‘‘swing”’ is in progress, but immedi- 
ately following it. They occurred especially followimg the price 
recessions from 10.04 to 10.05, from 10.35 to 10.37, from 11.07 to 
11.15, from 12.02 to 12.11, and from 12.40 to 12.43 o’clock. The 
apparent explanation as it relates to those sending in buying orders 
is that as price recessions took place they bought with the expectation 
of a reaction upward in a short while. For those who were selling 
and who were decidedly in the minority, the occasion for their sales 
was probably due in most cases to a desire to limit further loss. In 
either case, the small-trade clientele of these two firms appeared to 
be largely followers rather than forecasters of market movements in 
price. The chart would be considerably more valuable were it pos- 
sible to identify the sales of trader No. 1 within exact limits of time. 
Whether they occurred largely at the points of price movement, or 
preceded or followed each movement could not be determined. 
Because the small-trader transactions largely followed price declines, 
it does not necessarily follow that the large sales did. They may 
have been carried for a brief interval largely by pit scalpers who in 
turn sold to the small and medium-sized speculators. 
How much of a sample of the small and medium-sized speculative 
trade is shown in Figure 8 is somewhat problematical. Of the total 
volume of trading of 93,439,000 bushels on the Chicago market that 
