Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/680

* STOCK EXCEANGE. 584 STOCKHOLM. speculator, he borrows most of the requisite funds, depositing the purchased stock as security. He can usually borrow 80 per cent, of the cost value of his shares the difference. 20 per cent., being his 'margin.' If the price falls, the lender calls on him to 'make good his margin.' If he fails to do so, and the margin continues "im- paired,' he is 'closed out' by the sale of his col- lateral. A 'boom' is a successful upward move- ment of prices ; this term is of American origin. The opposite of a 'boom,' in stock exchange phraseology, is a 'slump.' The 'bear' is a seller of stocks 'which he hopes to obtain, later on, at lower prices. He may be selling his own holdings and delivering them to the purchaser. But if a speculator, he may borrow stocks as the 'bull' borrows money. Generally he obtains the stocks by lending their equivalent in money to the owner. He is said to be 'short' of stocks, where the bull is 'long.' The bull 'realizes' when he sells to take his profits; similarly, the bear 'covers' when he buys on the market the stock in which he has been speculating, and re- turns the shares which he has borroucd. Stocks are said to be 'carried' when they are accepted as security from a bull speculator. A 'manipu- lated' market is one in which speculators have caused an artificial appearance of real buying or selling. A 'rigged' market is much the same thing, though in a more intensified form. 'Puts' are contracts sold at a fixed percentage by capitalists to bull speculators, whereby the capi- talist undertakes to pay a set price for a given number of shares within a stipulated time. This insures the speculator against more than a cer- tain amount of loss if he buys stocks. 'Calls' are contracts similarly sold by capitalists, who agree within a given time, and at a set price, to deliver the shares agreed upon to the speculator. This is a guarantee against losses on a falling market. Both sorts of contracts are classified as 'privileges.' 'Wash sales' are transactions in which buyer and seller are employed by the same person, with a view to creating a semblance of activity. They are prohibited under severe pen- alties by the stock exchanges, but are rarely detected and are very frequently utilized. STOCKHOLDER. In the strict sense of the term, a person who owns one or more shares of stock in a corporation, and who has been recognized by the latter as having the rights commonly incidental to such ownership. Entry of a person's name on the books of a cor- poration as the owner of stock is the best evi- dence of his standing as a stockholder, and as long as his name remains there he may gen- erally exercise all a stockholder's privileges. However, a person to whom shares of stock have been transferred, but whose name has not yet been entered on the books, is sometimes treated as if he were a stockholder and spoken of as such. A corporation is protected in paying divi- dends to a person whose name remains on its books as a stockholder, even if he has transferred his shares of stock, provided the purchaser has not given notice of that fact. A stockholder of record has the right to vote in certain meetings, the most important of which, perhaps, is one for the election of officers. Each stockholder may vote the number of shares he owns, and thus one person owning the majority of the stock of a cor- poration may control its elections and policy against the wishes of a great number of holders of a small number of shares aggregating less than the majority. Among the rights of a stock- holder are: the right to protest and invoke the aid of the courts against a misuse of the funds of the corporation, or against fraud by the ma- jority stockholders or the officers; to object to a change in the kind of business which the charter authorizes it to carry on; the right to inspect all or any of the books of the corporation at rea- .sonable times and places; and to receive divi- dends out of the earnings, when a surplus has accumulated, which is not needed for running the business, or for improvements. In many States a stockholder is onlv liable for the debts of the corporation to the amount of his stock, that is, he onl.v loses what he has paid in, assuming he has paid in the par value of his stock, in case of insolvency of the corporation. If a subscriber to the stock of a corporation has not paid in the full par value of the amount of stock subscribed for by him, creditors of the corporation may hold him for the balance remaining unpaid. A stock- holder is not strictl.v a creditor of the corpora- tion to the amount of his stock, as he is deferred to corporate creditors on a final distribution of assets; but he may become a creditor by a loan of money or sale of goods, and thus stand on an equal footing with the others as to such claims, in most jurisdictions. See Coepor.^tiox ; Stock; and consult authorities there referred to. STOCKHOLM, stOk'holm. The capital of Sweden, situated at the outlet of the Millar Lake into the Baltic Sea, in latitude 59° '20' X., longi- tude 18° 3' E. (Map: Sweden, H 7). The situation is extremel.v picturesque, the city being built partl.y on a number of islands, partly on peninsulas cut off from the mainland bv deep fiords, while the waterways both toward the Malar and toward the sea lead through laby- rinths of fiords and islands. Stockholm has been called the 'Venice of the North,' but its aspect is entirely different from that of Venice. Both the islands and the mainland are rocky and hilly, with granite knolls exposed on all sides, while a prim.'eval forest penetrates almost to the heart of the cit.v. The old nucleus, known as Staden (The City), is built on an island lying across the mouth of the Jliilar channel, and connected by bridges with the northern and southern shores and with the little Riddarholm (knight's island) on the west. It has narrow .streets falling steep- ly on all sides from the central Stortorget. Skeppholmen. to the east of Staden, is almost wholl.v occupied by militarv and naval depots. The remaining parts of the citv. Siidernialm on the south shore, Norrmalm and Oestermalm on tlie nortli shore, and Kungsholmen in the north- west, are for the most part regularly laid out with broad and straight streets. Here are also a number of handsome squares, parks, and prome- nades, such as the Gustaf Adolfs Torg. with an equestrian statue of Gustaiis Adolphus, the Kimgstriidsgflrd on the water front with a hand- some fountain, and the Humlegard. a large and beautiful pleasure garden, containing a colossal bronze statue of Linnicus. From Oestermalm a bridge leads to the easternmost part of the city — an island about two miles long and three-fourths of a mile wide, known as Djurgarden from its having formerly been a deer park. It is now laid out as a city park. The principal churches are the Storkyrka (great church), founded in the thirteenth cen-