They are the other party--a market maker isn't (outside of the "designated market makers" I referenced earlier) a special participant in trading, they're just like you or me.
If I put a limit order in to buy at 3332.95, and someone takes it, I now have one stock. If I put in a limit order to sell at 3333.05, I sell that stock and make a dime. In aggregate, if I'm doing that many many times, and the price stays roughly around 3333, I'm making a dime on every round trip.
A "market maker" just means that I don't really care about investing or speculating, all I'm really in for is to collect that dime on the round-trip and sit at the bid/ask spread.
> Also are you saying that the market maker dictates the bid ask spread and not the highest bidder/lowest seller
No, as you've said, the highest bidder/lowest seller set the bid/ask spread. It's just, in any high volume market, chances are the incidental traders that want to improve the best offer clear very quickly--at any given point the market is probably going to clear until you hit the market makers. By definition, they're the folks willing to wait it out.
That said, market makers can compete with each other--if you are more ambitious than your competition, you might be willing to improve (narrow the spread) on your competitors. You'll make money by filling trades that they will miss out, but on the other hand, you're getting less spread and less profit per-trade. If that lower profit doesn't cover the statistical risk of losses from price movements, then you won't be profitable. The bid/ask spread narrows or widens based on the interactions of all market participants, just, if a particular instrument looks very risky, the market makers, acting as backstops, might want more money in the form of spread to warrant trading.
In practice, the most liquid instrument in the market these days trade pretty close to the minimum spread all of the time--high-frequency market makers are very efficient and so you rarely have to pay more than a penny to cross the spread. As a result, it's also not terribly profitable to make markets, since you're only earning a penny per round-trip for the risk you have to take.
(Compared to say, real estate, where the "bid/ask spread" is basically unknown and has to be discovered through the very expensive agent mechanism.)
Really detailed explanation! This is essentially it. While there's obviously a bunch more complexity, the essence of market making is just trying not to own a stock, but just buy and sell immediately.
Think about how when you go on holiday and want to change money. Admittedly it's becoming more online now, but when you go to a foreign exchange shop they will have a "we buy" and "we sell" price. They are essentially a market maker. They don't care about having a load of pounds, or dollars or rupees. They just want to buy low and sell high to you, and make the difference!
They are the other party--a market maker isn't (outside of the "designated market makers" I referenced earlier) a special participant in trading, they're just like you or me.
If I put a limit order in to buy at 3332.95, and someone takes it, I now have one stock. If I put in a limit order to sell at 3333.05, I sell that stock and make a dime. In aggregate, if I'm doing that many many times, and the price stays roughly around 3333, I'm making a dime on every round trip.
A "market maker" just means that I don't really care about investing or speculating, all I'm really in for is to collect that dime on the round-trip and sit at the bid/ask spread.
> Also are you saying that the market maker dictates the bid ask spread and not the highest bidder/lowest seller
No, as you've said, the highest bidder/lowest seller set the bid/ask spread. It's just, in any high volume market, chances are the incidental traders that want to improve the best offer clear very quickly--at any given point the market is probably going to clear until you hit the market makers. By definition, they're the folks willing to wait it out.
That said, market makers can compete with each other--if you are more ambitious than your competition, you might be willing to improve (narrow the spread) on your competitors. You'll make money by filling trades that they will miss out, but on the other hand, you're getting less spread and less profit per-trade. If that lower profit doesn't cover the statistical risk of losses from price movements, then you won't be profitable. The bid/ask spread narrows or widens based on the interactions of all market participants, just, if a particular instrument looks very risky, the market makers, acting as backstops, might want more money in the form of spread to warrant trading.
In practice, the most liquid instrument in the market these days trade pretty close to the minimum spread all of the time--high-frequency market makers are very efficient and so you rarely have to pay more than a penny to cross the spread. As a result, it's also not terribly profitable to make markets, since you're only earning a penny per round-trip for the risk you have to take.
(Compared to say, real estate, where the "bid/ask spread" is basically unknown and has to be discovered through the very expensive agent mechanism.)