01-20-2013, 01:11 AM
John, as I recall, and I'll have to recheck, but a few years ago on the switchover from specialists to the new format. Goldman Sachs was the prime mover in this effort. Instead of a specialist for each security, there were 4 "specialists" but their roll was different than the previous specialists. All the original HFC traders were also Goldman for an initial period of time, I believe 6-8 months. Then others were phased in, such as Citadel, and other bigs into these rolls. I would guess that there are 5-6, maybe more big firms in this roll today. So, yes the HFC traders play an integral roll with the marketmakers. This info is not readily available by these players, so you have to make a project out of it. fwiw I'll recheck the above when I get time.