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Gold/Mining/Energy : Millstream Mines (MLSM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumell who wrote (84)	5/26/1999 5:38:00 PM
From: BLZBub	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 664

The "Dealer" only makes money on the spread. Your broker (which includes the trader who made the phone call to the dealer) only makes money on the commission. I'm not sure who these dealers actually are, and whether any of them are affiliated with the major brokerages. The dealer is essentially a market maker, who is allowed to operate by the exchange in order to create liquidity in a stock. Lots of other exchanges work this same way, including NASDAQ and the Chicago Options Exchange. I believe that the NYSE is a hybrid system, which has market makers in addition to direct electronic trading between buyers and sellers. On the surface it appears that the transaction cost to you is higher when you take into account the spread collected by the dealer. However, you have to ask yourself what would the "retail" spread be if this were an illiquid stock on the VSE. Without the existence of the market maker, you could be hosed if you were forced to sell when there were few buyers on that day. Bill.