bucketing


Bucketing

The practice in which a brokerage that agrees to buy or sell securities on behalf of clients at a given price instead buys at a lower price or sells at a higher price in order to keep the difference as profit. Bucketing is illegal in the United States because it is a violation of the brokerage's fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interest of the client (in this case, to find the best available price). Brokerages that routinely engage in bucketing are known as bucket shops. The practice is occasionally called bucketeering. See also: Profiteering, Bucketeer.

bucketing

Taking the opposite side of a customer's order into the broker's account or an account over which the broker has an interest without first putting the order out for a competitive bid.