A former NYSE ARCA options market maker explains how the job really works — mostly good news for traders, because the villain they blame for bad trades is not the one hurting them.

• Market makers quote a buy price and a sell price at the same time and earn the tiny gap between them, thousands of times a day.
• They do not bet on direction — every fill gets hedged within seconds, because holding a position is the real danger.
• Their biggest fear is trading against someone faster or better informed, not small retail accounts.
• Stop losses do get run, but by big quant firms hunting clusters of orders sitting at obvious highs and lows — the crowd gets picked off together, not one person at a time.
• Without market makers, spreads blow out and there is no one obligated to take the other side — the 2010 flash crash printed big-name stocks at a penny for exactly that reason.

Outlook: Anyone placing a resting limit order is already doing a small version of this job, and moving stops away from the obvious levels is the practical defense.