Specialist
Volume Price Analysis glossary · Volume Price Analysis
Definition
A designated market maker on the NYSE, assigned to maintain orderly markets in specific securities.
Specialist in plain English
On the old New York Stock Exchange, each stock was assigned a specialist — a designated dealer whose job was to keep trading in that stock smooth and orderly. If there were suddenly far more buyers than sellers (or vice versa), the specialist would step in and buy or sell from their own stock to prevent wild price jumps, a bit like a referee keeping a game from descending into chaos. Because they sat at the center of all the order flow, specialists could see supply and demand no one else could — which is exactly the kind of insider footprint volume analysis tries to detect. (Note: modern electronic markets have largely replaced this role.)
Practice Specialist
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