Market Maker

A market maker provides pricing and liquidity for a particular currency pair and stands ready to buy or sell that currency at the quoted price. A market maker takes the opposite side of your trade and has the option of either holding that position or partially or fully offsetting it with other market participants, managing their aggregate exposure to their clients. If a market maker chooses to keep the trader's position without offsetting it in the market, the trader's profit is the market maker's loss and vice versa, leading to a possible conflict of interest between the trader and his market maker. A market maker earns their commission from the spread between the bid and offer price.