36 BULLETIN 1479, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
short not more than 5,000 or 10,000 bushels each; the number having 
a position of from 10,000 to 25,000 might run into the hundreds; and 
as the size of the market position increased, the number of traders 
would rapidly decrease, those heading the list with a position of, say, 
1,000,000 bushels or over being very few in number. If plotted, the - 
curve would slope upward, but at an accelerated rate like a curve of 
money incomes or a curve showing rates of mortality. 
If then, after having arranged the traders in the order of the size of 
their trades, one were to attempt to say just where traders of small size 
end and those of average size begin, and what portion should be called 
large traders, difficulty would be encountered. One would have to do 
what is generally done, viz, arbitrarily establish points of grouping. 
This discussion of sampling and classifying material has been given to 
facilitate the presentation of Figures 8 and 9. 
SMALL TRADER OPERATIONS ON AN INDIVIDUAL DAY 
In order to present a detailed picture of how a portion of the market 
responds to the operations of leading speculators, Figure 8 has been 
prepared. It shows the course of the May’ wheat price on March i, 
1926. It shows, in addition, at what time and in what amounts the 
orders handled through two leading commission houses came on the 
market. Finally, it shows the general limits and amounts of sales or 
purchases of the two leading speculators that day. 
The day chosen for this study should not be thought of as an aver- 
age day. It was a day in which the price moved down from the open- 
ing to the closing 7 cents and in which two traders together sold net 
10,000,000 bushels of May wheat futures. It was chosen on account 
of its unusual price movement and individual large trades in order to 
give a picture of the market on a ‘“‘big”’ day. The price curve shows 
every recorded change in price during the day. 
The choice of the two clearing firms whose trading is shown was 
dictated by the character of the business which each handled. They 
are both large wire houses having branches extending to important 
trading centers throughout the United States and Canada. Almost 
all of their business comes in over their private wires, very little being 
local buisness in and around Chicago. Judging from the orders 
received on March 1 (the average size for the day being 7,491 bushels) 
and the known character of the two firms, their buisness is representa- 
tive of the small and medium sized speculative trade of the board. 
Sales aggregating 1,750,000 bushels made by trader No. 3 through one 
of the firms are not included in calculating this average. These sales, 
together with others made by trader No. 3 through other firms, total- 
ing in all 4,500,000 bushels, are handled separately with those of 
trader No. 1 in order to vontrast them with the many small orders 
executed. 
In preparing the material for Ficure 8, it was necessary to go 
direct to the telegraphic orders received during the day by each of 
the two firms. From these orders, the following information for 
each trade was obtained: (1) Whether a purchase or a sale; (2) the 
amount; (3) for whose account; (4) the price; (5) the type of order, i.e., 
.whether market, stop, open, or limited; (6) the time filed; and (7) 
the time executed. The last two items of information are recorded 
by the use of a 10-second time clock, so that it was possible, when 
taken in conjunction with the price, to identify the time at which 
the trades were made in the pit within fairly narrow limits. 
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