A type of bucketing (order bucketing) that takes place when a brokerage firm (broker) takes a position on the other side of a customer’s order. It involves taking the other side of a customer’s order. For example, if a customer has placed a buy order on a given security, indirect bucketing occurs when the broker ends up with a sell position on the same security.

Indirect bucketing is, like bucketing, a noncompetitive trade, and hence is an illegal practice (as deemed so by exchanges).