What is a Portfolio Special Crossing?

Question

What is a Portfolio Special Crossing?

Answer 1

This refers to a type of trade made where the broker or party executing the trade is acting as principal for that trade.

in essence; say I ask my broker to sell 1000 shares of GS; if they are acting as principal then they are the effective counterparty to my trade; this generally means they are behaving as marketmaker and giving me the cash for the shares rather than selling them into the open market.

This makes no actual difference to me as I get my money, though the broker may or may not have bucketed the original trade (taken on my position and profiting from my loss, or losing from my profit) - in legal terms, the Special Crossing should *always* be reported to the exchange though, and hence "bucketing" shouldn't occur.