Dealer

Dealers, or principals, buy and sell securities for their own accounts, adding liquidity to the marketplace and seeking to profit from the spread between the prices at which they buy and sell.

In the over-the-counter market, in most cases, it is dealers -- also called market makers -- who provide the bid and ask quotes you see when you look up the price of a security.

Those dealers are willing to commit their capital to specific securities and are ready to trade the securities at the quoted prices.