Specialist – A member of the New York Stock Exc

Specialist – A member of the New York Stock Exchange who has two primary functions: first, to maintain an orderly market in the securities registered to the specialist. In order to maintain an orderly market, the exchange expects specialists to buy or sell for their own account, to a reasonable degree, when there is a temporary disparity between supply and demand. Second, the specialist acts as a broker's broker. When commission brokers on the exchange floor receive a limit order, say, to buy at $50 a stock then selling at $60 - they cannot wait at the post where the stock is traded to see if the price reaches the specified level. They leave the order with a specialist, who will try to execute it in the market if and when the stock declines to the specified price. At all times the specialists must put their customers' interests above their own.