NYSE specialists face criminal indictment

NYSE specialists face criminal indictment:

"Last year, NYSE specialist firms paid a total of $247 million to settle the same allegations brought by the SEC.

The firms' profits come from fees on each transaction as well as their own stock trading. Critics of the specialist system claim this is an inherent conflict of interest, while the NYSE has noted that the specialist firms gained $155 million in illegal profits over five years, a time when the exchange handled $50 trillion in trades."