bucket shop

An illegal brokerage firm that accepts customer orders but does not attain immediate executions. A bucket shop broker promises the customer a certain price, but waits until a price discrepancy is present and the trade is advantageous to the firm and then keeps the difference as profit. Alternatively, the broker may never fill the customer's order but keep the money. Bloomberg Financial Dictionary

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bucket shop bucket shop ➔ shop¹

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   A fraudulent brokerage selling overpriced shares with little underlying value. They usually operate by telephone sales, often from another country. Also known as a boiler room, a reference to the cheap premises from which such brokerages work. A bucket shop can also be a brokerage that accepts commissions to trade shares at a certain price, then carries out the order at a different price to its advantage, pocketing the difference.

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bucket shop UK US noun [C] INFORMAL

► STOCK MARKET a dishonest or illegal company that buys and sells shares for customers: »

In the late eighties, bucket shops started to target people who were new to investing.

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bucket shop share dealers

► UK COMMERCE a travel company that sells plane tickets at a low price: »

The company began life as a bucket shop selling surplus airline tickets at knock-down prices.

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bucket shop flights/fares/tickets