Jobber (Stockjobber): Definition, Role, and History

What is a jobber?

A jobber—often called a stockjobber—was the name given to a specialist market maker on the London Stock Exchange prior to October 1986. Jobbers held securities on their own account, provided continuous two-sided prices, and created liquidity by buying and selling from their inventory. Brokers, who dealt with the public, routed client orders to jobbers rather than making markets themselves.

Role and mechanics

• Market making: Jobbers quoted bid and ask prices and profited from the bid–ask spread.
• Inventory risk: They held shares on their books to ensure immediate execution against brokered orders.
• Liquidity provision: By standing ready to buy and sell, jobbers smoothed trading and reduced transaction frictions.
• Specialization: Over the 19th and early 20th centuries many jobbing firms specialized in particular types of securities or market segments.

Origins and evolution

• Origins: Stockjobbing emerged after Britain’s Financial Revolution in the 1690s, when joint‑stock companies and regulated exchanges created a market for freely tradable shares.
• 19th century: The jobbing system became more structured as the range of securities broadened; at one point hundreds of jobbing firms operated in London.
• Early 20th century: By 1914 there were over 600 jobbing firms, including many sole practitioners. Over the 20th century their numbers fell as market structure, capital requirements, and the rise of institutional investors changed trading needs.

Decline and disappearance

The role of the traditional jobber effectively ended with the London Stock Exchange’s “Big Bang” in October 1986. Key changes that made the jobbing model obsolete included:
* Deregulation and the removal of fixed commission rates.
* Abolition of the formal separation between brokers and jobbers.
* Adoption of electronic, screen-based trading and negotiated commissions.
These reforms encouraged combined broker–dealer firms and automated market-making, eliminating the need for the historical jobber model.

Jobber vs. broker

• Jobber (market maker): Trades for its own account, provides quotes, profits from the bid–ask spread, and supplies liquidity.
• Broker: Executes orders on behalf of clients, charges commissions (or client fees), and does not hold a public inventory for market-making.

Records and legacy

Jobbers left relatively few formal records, so much of what is known comes from oral histories, corporate archives, and retrospective research. The jobbing system shaped London’s financial markets for nearly three centuries and influenced later models of market making and liquidity provision.

Key takeaways

• A jobber was the London Stock Exchange’s market maker—holding inventory and matching brokered orders.
• The jobbing system evolved across the 18th–20th centuries as markets and securities types expanded.
• Big Bang deregulation (1986) and electronic trading ended the traditional jobber role, replacing it with integrated broker‑dealers and electronic market makers.

Selected sources

Attard, Bernard. “Making a market. The jobbers of the London Stock Exchange, 1800–1986.” Financial History Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2000.
Institute for Historical Research. “The jobbing system of the London Stock Exchange: an oral history.”
The Independent. “The day Big Bang blasted the old boys into oblivion.”
Philip Auger. The Death of Gentlemanly Capitalism.