found; and if he speculates now and then, apart from the necessities of his business, and to satisfy a desire for a little excitement, or because some special view of the course of events encourages him to try his luck, it is, as a rule, in the stocks in which he is accustomed to deal. * * * * * It may be of interest to some persons to contrast the terms used in England with those employed by stock-brokers and jobbers across the Atlantic, and we append those in use on the New York Stock Exchange, with explanations. The inventive resource which is so characteristic of the American, crops up in the terms used in their Stock markets, as in the case of the “put and call” option with us, which the Yankee cannot be satisfied with, but must invent the vulgar synonym of “straddles,” which is certainly expressive of the pair of operations in one. The mania for getting rich by making short cuts and royal roads engenders apparently an impatience of terms which contain a single syllable or letter that is unnecessary, however hallowed by time, and hence, “put and call” is superseded by “straddles.” [19] The “put” is a contract by which, during a fixed time, usually thirty days, a seller for a consideration agrees to take from a buyer of a “put” a stock at a given price, generally several per cent below the market value. The “call” is an operation of a directly opposite nature, being a contract by which for a consideration a seller of a “call” undertakes to deliver to a buyer a certain stock at a given price, generally several per cent. above the market value. To “put up a margin” signifies to deposit with your brokers a sum of money, as a rule 10 per cent. of the par value of a stock, as security against failure to meet losses. To buy “long” is the equivalent of our term “bull.” To sell “short” is the equivalent of our term “bear.” To “corner” a stock is to purchase all that can be obtained and make it very scarce, and also more than can be obtained, in order to run the price up, and “roast,” as the saying is in the London market, the speculative sellers; but the “cornering,” as we understand the meaning of the word, would seem to apply more to the speculative sellers who are “roasted” than to the stock which may be selected for the operation.