yes MM is market maker.
As for them influencing prices with buys and sells, although it happens it is not NEAR what you hear on these boards. People are wrong when thy say it most of the time. Most of the time, they act exactly as their name says. to make a market for you. You place an order to buy or sell, and your broker gives it to a MM and they transact that transaction for you. they make the transaction on their market. Hence market maker. But anytime a seller comes in, folks say it is the MM holding us down. Not normally. Normally it is a person selling, and the MM is just doing their job and placing that transaction. They DO hold positions, both long and short at times, and trade for a profit, but again not NEAR as often as you will see on any board. I've tagged along with one for a day, and he only did like two trades all day for himself. All the rest was just being VERY BUSY working trades brought TO him, by brokerages.
GLTU. this should be a great one for you to start with. :-)
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
