A member of the Stock Exchange who deals in stocks on his own account; = JOBBER2 4.
a. 1626. Sir J. Davies, in Carte, Hist. Eng. (1755), IV. 194/1 He had … played the stock-jobber in buying the debentures, tallies and ticquets,… at a great discompt.
a. 1692. Shadwell (title), The Volunteers, or the Stock-Jobbers. A Comedy.
1697. Lond. Gaz., No. 3280/2. An Act to Restrain the Number and ill Practices of Brokers and Stock-Jobbers. Ibid. (1723), No. 6136/4. Thomas Shank,… Broker and Stockjobber.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 20, ¶ 5. The son of a wealthy stock-jobber, who spends his morning under his father’s eye, in Change-Alley. Ibid. (1755), Dict., Stockjobber, a low wretch who gets money by buying and selling shares in the funds.
1838. Lytton, Alice, III. i. Lord Vargrave … was … suspected of selling his state information to stock-jobbers.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Stock-jobber, an outsider or intermediate agent between the buyer and seller of public securities, who makes a marginal price at which shares, etc. are to be bought or sold in the Stock-exchange.
b. U.S. ‘A stockbroker; often used somewhat contemptuously or to suggest unscrupulousness’ (W., 1911).
1895. in Funk’s Stand. Dict.
Hence Stock-jobbery jocular, stock-jobbing.
1882. Ogilvie, Stock-jobbery, the practice or business of dealing in stocks or shares: used in a disparaging sense.
1897. Daily News, 22 May, 5/1. Was the Jameson plan conceived or abetted in the interests of stock-jobbery?
