Yes, but often MMs/Specialists provide the matching shares... either when there is no supply for demand or they decide to use their inventory to manipulate the price (for fun and profit). http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/04/060304.asp Specialists are people on the trading floor of an exchange, such as the NYSE, who hold inventories of particular stocks. A specialist's job is not only to match buyers and sellers, but also to keep an inventory for him or herself that can be used to shift the market during a period of illiquidity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_maker Other U.S. exchanges, most prominently the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, employ several competing official market makers in a security. These market makers are required to maintain two-sided markets during exchange hours and are obligated to buy and sell at their displayed bids and offers. They typically do not receive the trading advantages a specialist does, but they do get some, such as the ability to naked short a stock, i.e. selling it without a borrow. In most situations only official market makers are permitted to engage in naked shorting.