Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 8.djvu/468

452 452 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. it need not be described here, for it would be merely restating what has already been stated at the beginning of this article in the description there given of the way stockbrokers deal together according to the rules and customs of the Stock Exchange to which they belong. As already indicated, the stockbroker can make one contract, or as many contracts with the same or dif- ferent stockbrokers as he deems advisable,^ provided that the total amount^ of securities bought or sold shall be the amount stated in the order. In so contracting the stockbroker can either make an offer or offers to be accepted, or accept an offer or offers made by another stockbroker or other stockbrokers, provided that the offer or offers if accepted will result in contracting to buy or to sell securities according to the terms of the customer's order. With regard to the matters of price, amount,^ and kind of securities, the stockbroker must carry out the order exactly.^ If in any case a stockbroker succeeds * in cojitracting to buy or to sell as he is ordered to, he is said to have " executed " the order, and the order is said to be or to have been " executed." ^ What the stockbroker has to do to execute the order has been stated, and the next question is. When must he do it? Since the stockbroker at the time he takes the order does not usually promise Rosenstock v. Tormey, 32 Md. 169. So the stockbroker can delegate to his clerk the doing of the acts constituting performance of the contract or contracts made. Mechem on Agency, § 944. Where, however, anything is left to the stockbroker's discretion, he must exercise his personal judgment. Simms v. May, 16 N. Y. St. Rep. 780. 1 His authority being " to contract." 2 No custom exists allowing a stockbroker to contract to buy or to sell a less amount of securities than he is ordered to in a case where no discretion is given to him to do so. This discretion is, however, usually given with all orders to buy or to sell more than 100 shares or 10 bonds, and the number of shares or bonds stated in the order is in such case treated as a limit. Dos Passos, 119, 120; Marye v. Strouse, 5 Fed. Rep. 483; where the discretion is given, the order is said to be "executed" for as many shares or bonds as are contracted to be bought or sold. 8 An order to purchase at 57I is not fulfilled by a purchase at 57I or 58. Genin v. Isaacson, 6 N. Y. Leg. Obs. 213. Cf. Day v. Holmes, 103 Mass. 306, and Pickering v. Demerritt, 100 Mass. 416. The same thing would be true of an order to sell. An order to buy " regular " is not fulfilled by a purchase at thirty days seller's option. Taussig V. Hart, 58 N. Y. 425. An order to sell wheat on a particular day is not ful- filled by a sale on the following day. Scott v. Rogers, 31 N. Y. 676. the order, an order can be revoked. Dos Passos, etc., 120, 121, 165. On the general principles governing the revocation of orders given to brokers, see Sibbald v. The Bethlehem Iron Co., 83 N. Y. 37S ; Mechem on Agency, §§ 204, 968. ^ Consequently the performance of the contract or contracts is not included, techni- cally speaking, in the " execution " of an order.
 * Until the stockbroker has done something to bind the customer, viz. "execute"