Business and Personal Finance Dictionary

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• MARKET MAKER
  
  A dealer in an electronic market, such as the Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq), who is prepared to buy or sell a specific security-such as a bond or at least one round lot of a stock-at its publicly quoted price, is called a market maker. Typically, there are several market makers in each security. On the floor of an exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), however, the dealer who handles buying and selling a particular stock is called a specialist, and there is only one specialist in each stock. Brokerage firms that maintain an inventory of a particular security to sell to their own clients, or to brokers at other firms for resale, are also called market makers.
  
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