Market Maker

Infrastructure

A market maker continuously quotes bid and ask prices on an instrument and profits from the spread.

A market maker continuously quotes bid and ask prices on an instrument and earns the spread on each trade. Market making is a core proprietary trading activity at firms like Jane Street, Optiver, IMC, and Citadel Securities.

The strategy depends on inventory management, hedging, and risk modeling — not directional views. Market-making firms hire traders into very different roles than retail prop firms; the work resembles quantitative engineering more than discretionary trading.

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