What Is an Authorized Participant?
An authorized participant is an organization that has the right to create and redeem shares of an exchange traded fund (ETF). They provide a large portion of the liquidity in the ETF market by obtaining the underlying assets required to create the shares of an ETF. When there is a shortage of ETF shares in the market, authorized participants create more. Conversely, authorized participants will reduce ETF shares in circulation when the price of the ETF is lower than the price of the underlying shares. That can be done with the creation and redemption mechanism that keeps the price of an ETF aligned with its underlying net asset value (NAV).