bucket shop

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bucket shop

n. an unofficial and usually illegal betting operation in which the prices of stocks and commodities are posted and the customers bet on the rise and fall of prices without actually buying stock, commodities, or commodity futures. Bucket shops are seldom seen today since there are many opportunities to gamble legally on the stock and commodities markets.

References in periodicals archive ?

The result has been almost no one having credit and the banks, hedge funds, and modern bucket shops being paid handsomely for the privilege.

The way it was is the way it is with big bankers

EVERYONE KNOWS THAT designers are all a bunch of wing nuts, fabricators are all bucket shops, OEMs are simply traitors and assemblers are all out to take advantage of everyone

Breaking old habits: reduce waste and work towards profitable collaborations that improve your success

The casually operated bucket shops, however, were another matter, and the Court shut them down.

Trading in dreams

Some bucket shops took the customer's money but never made the trade, the operator would simply throw the order in the garbage pail--the bucket.