A _stockbroker_ is a broker who deals in the purchase and sale of stocks or shares for others. What is known as a _stockjobber_ is one who buys and sells stock on his own account on speculation: he is a useful medium between the public and the broker. There are some dealers on the _Stock Exchange_—the mart where stocks and shares are bought and sold—who, by a poetic figure, are known as _Bulls_ and _Bears_. Bulls are dealers who buying stock low have an interest in trying all sorts of devices to raise prices. Bears, on the other hand, try to bring prices down, they being commonly persons who have sold and undertaken to deliver more stock than they are in possession of, and who are therefore under the necessity of buying in at a loss in order to settle their accounts. How they came to be called bulls and bears is doubtful. “They have been connected,” says one writer, “with the animals to which allusion is made by a reference to their respective modes of attack. The bear crushes, or bears _down_ his antagonist, whereas the bull’s method is to toss him _up_.” _Transfer_ is the legal operation by which the rights and responsibilities of the people disposing of stock or shares are conveyed to those who buy. When the purchaser, or his or her attorney, signs the transfer in the bank books, that is known as _Acceptance of Stock_. The periodical payments of interest made by the Government to the holders of the National Debt and other public funds are known as _Dividends_. The term dividend is also applied to the sums paid to the shareholders of a company at each periodical division of profits. _Cum-Dividend_ means that the purchaser of the shares is to receive the dividend then payable or about to be paid. That is to say, the sale is _with_ the dividend. _Ex-Dividend_ just means the reverse; a sale _ex-dividend_ is _without_ the dividend. _Paid-up shares_ are shares on which the full subscribed or nominal amount has been paid up. In the case of a limited liability company, for example, the shares may be nominally of £100, with £50 paid-up. Here the purchaser has to consider that she is liable at any time to be called on to subscribe the remaining £50 per share. Should the company come to grief she will not only lose what she paid for the shares, but be liable for £50 as well upon each share. When the price of securities of any kind is equal to their nominal value, they are said to be at _par_. Suppose £100 shares in a gas company are selling at £94, they are 6 per cent. _below par_; if £103 they are 3 per cent. _above par_. When you see shares quoted as _at a premium_—say £1 shares at 5s. _premium_—that means that for every share you would have to pay 25s., or 5s. more than its nominal value. _Debentures_, as commonly understood, are mortgage deeds given by railway companies in acknowledgment of borrowed money. Debenture bonds give the holders the first claim for dividends on the company’s receipts.