Broker-Dealer Explained: Roles, Differences & How They Serve Clients

The broker dealer is a financial institution that handles transactions for their clients. Most brokers in the financial world are considered to be broker dealers. 

A broker is an individual that works on behalf of their investment clients. They take their orders and place them into the market. They give them investment advice and help them plan out their trades.

A dealer on the other hand is an institutional investor that makes trades for their own benefit. Typically, the dealer is the one that supplies the securities that are purchased when an individual wants to trade in the stock market.

A broker dealer is an entity that is actually taking on both roles at the same time. They are representing their clients, but it the same time, they have a large number of securities in their own portfolio. In many cases, the broker dealer will provide the securities that are needed when an individual client places a trade into the market. The broker dealer can make money on the commission from acting as a broker and they can also make money when they sell securities to their customers from the spread on the transaction.