Replies to post #5098 on Technipower Systems, Inc.(fka TECZ)

[winky0906]

Pete, I will try and explain in plain english the process of making a market . I was in the business for 38 yrs and traded tax exempt bonds for 25 of those years. Market makers do in fact buy on the bid side and sell on the ask side and pocket the spread in most cases. They are there to provided liquidity for the stock so you and others can buy and sell if they need to.
They are also in the business of making MONEY.. Hopefully. They are not there to make you or others MONEY. If there were no market makers you would not be able to execute your trades.
There seems to be about 5 or 6 market markers on this stock ands if you notice the spreads on those quotes can be pretty wide ands that is because of the nature of this stock (BB). Some of those quotes represent orders that they have from customers and in some cases that is what is represented in the quotes that you see.

As a market maker, if he has a bid out there at 1.00 and he keeps getting hit at that price he will drop his bid if he thinks people are dumping and he doesn't have any reason or conviction to buy at a higher price. More to follow

[theidbeman]

kubotapete--

It is obvious that you do not understand the functions of a market maker. Similar to a specialist on a stock exchange, the market maker serves two basic functions. In the first case he facilitates buy and sells between individual investors. In other words if there is a buyer at a particular price and a seller at the same price the market maker can cross the trades at the given price between the two parties. In this case the market maker does not act as a buyer or a seller of the shares, he just acts as a go between. The market maker, in such a case, receives a part of the commission for his services. In the second case the market maker can act in his own interest and buy for his own inventory or sell from his own inventory. In this capacity you are correct that the market maker wants to buy low and sell at a higher price. This however is not the case in all instances. Just like an individual investor, the market maker can make decisions that can go against himself, and in such a case he can lose money on the transaction just like an individual investor can make bad investment decisions.
theidbeman