=PIT:= The portion of the board of trade where floor trades are made. This term is particularly applied to Chicago. Other stock exchanges set aside certain places signified by posts set in the floor for trading and in these exchanges the trading points are called _posts_ instead of pits. =POOL:= A combination of buyers who work together and invest their joint capital as one. (The different boards of trade have enacted strict rules against pooling.) =PUT:= A privilege which one party buys of another to _put_ (deliver) to him a certain amount of stock, grain, etc., at a certain price and date. =PUT AND CALL:= A _put_ and a _call_ may be combined in one instrument, the holder of which may either buy or sell as he chooses at a fixed price and date. =REMARGIN:= To give more margin. =RING:= A combination of brokers to offset and settle trades with each other; also an exclusive combination of persons for a selfish purpose as, to control the market. (Rings have the same standing in the board of trade as pooling, if of the same character.) =SELL AT MARKET:= An order to one's broker giving authority to sell stock or grain at market price. SELL AT OPENING: An order to sell immediately after the opening of the stock exchange at the best price obtainable. =SELLING ORDER:= An order given to a broker to sell a certain security with or without limit as to price, as the case may be. A selling order is good for the day for which it is given only unless otherwise specified. =SETTLEMENT:= The payment of differences in trades between brokers. =SHORT:= One who has sold for future delivery what he does not own, but hopes to buy at a lower rate. =SKYROCKETING:= Pushing the prices of securities up to unnatural levels or forcing the price up with startling rapidity. =SLUMP:= A sudden and a considerable fall in prices. =SPREAD:= A "put and call" at differing prices. =STOP LOSS ORDER:= This is a method of limiting losses by giving a stop order to the broker to sell if stock declines below a certain point. These are sometimes called _stock orders_. =STRADDLE:= A "put and a call." =SWEETEN:= To give more collateral or margin. =TICKER:= A small printing machine operated by telegraph by which the outside world obtains the reliable information as to the prices of securities and commodities dealt in upon the principal exchanges of the world. It is a never failing source of information to the broker. The results are printed on a strip of paper like a ribbon which automatically unwinds and after passing under the printing device runs into a basket. The ribbon is called the _tape_. All fluctuations in prices are thus wired to the principal exchanges immediately. =WASH SALE:= An illegitimate or fictitious transaction. [Illustration: