Saitori

Categories: Banking

In Japan, it’s nakadachi. In the U.S., we say saitori. (Tomato, tomahtoe?)

Saitoris are people on a mission. They facilitate the buying and selling of securities for brokerages on Japanese stock exchanges. Saitoris are the worker bees of Japanese stock exchanges, making sure everything goes smoothly.

Saitoris aren’t just limited to stocks, though—options and futures contracts are game, too. Most saitoris work for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), matching buy and sell orders. They are responsible for accuracy, finding the lowest prices available for clients, and being quick about it, too. When things go haywire, they try to calm clients...and calm the market.

We have these on the New York Stock Exchange as well, but here they’re called “specialists.” Specialists are pretty much the same as saitoris, facilitating trades, except they’re more restricted, because there are a lot of U.S. laws on how exchanges are to be operated.



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