In most securities transactions, your broker-dealer Agency acts as your agent, arranging a transaction directly between you and a third party. In compensation for arranging that trade, you pay your broker-dealer a commission. In some instances, the broker dealer has the security you seek to purchase in inventory, or wants the security you wish to sell. The broker-dealer may trade with you on its own behalf, as a principal in the transaction. When the broker-dealer acts as a principal, and not as an agent, the trade confirmation should say that on its face. The broker-dealer is not paid a commission in principal trades, but makes its money on the spread, and by buying and selling at advantageous times, the same as any other investor. A sizeable portion of penny stock trades are principal transactions, and an investor should be alert to the potential conflicts of such transactions.
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