MM/Specialist

Fancy Way to Say: Market Maker A market maker is a firm responsible for 'making a market', or providing liquidity, in a stock. It takes the risk of being a buyer(seller) of last resort when needed. On the New York Stock Exchange there is only one market maker for each stock, the specialist. A specialist can make a market for more than one stock, but each stock does have only one specialist. However, on the Nasdaq a stock can, and in the case of more liquid stocks, often does have more than one market maker. Each market maker is responsible for posting its best bid and best offer on the stock. This information is available in a Nasdaq Level II display

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