The specialist is central to the New York Stock Exchange customer-driven system. Specialists manage the auction market in the specific securities allocated to them. Specialist units are independent companies in corporate or partnership structures. Performance Specialist Group is one of 15 firms. Combined these NYSE firms employ 482 specialists who specialize in more than 3,000 stocks.
Specialists conduct trading in equities across a range of industries.
The number of stocks traded by an individual specialist varies according to the total activity of the stocks. Most specialists manage between 5 and 10 stocks. Specialist firms distribute the activity to balance the workload for each specialist. A specialist managing one of the most active issues for a firm would normally specialize in that stock and perhaps another, less active stock. Specialist's Responsibility Specialists must maintain a fair, competitive, orderly and efficient market.