In general market participants on the bitshares decentralized exchange (DEX) perform the same roles as FOREX and stock market exchange market participants. There are however some new types of participants and new roles available on DEX, which are not present on traditional markets due to their nature or artificial restrictions leaving some roles available to only selected parties, for example, brokers.
Bitshares witnesses/nodes keep blockchain live and provide infrastructure for bitshares DEX
Gateways issue assets on bitshares blockchain that represent external cryptocurrencies and tokens; usually, they also run their own exchanges on top of the bitshares network
Issuers – issue and distribute new assets on the network
Customers are individual or retail parties, long term investors, etc. that exchange assets on the market as they require to swap assets for utility reasons or long time investment; the whole infrastructure, in fact, exists to deliver customers liquid and convenient markets; fees customers pay in the forms of network fees and spread is the fuel the network is running on
Market makers use market grid hedging strategies ( automated in tools like DEXbot) to provide liquidity on the markets; they pay little attention to market trends, technical analysis, social sentiments and they are always ready to both buy and sell close to the market median price; makers act as dampers or shock absorbers, smoothing out volatility and stabilizing price
Speculators use technical analysis or other tools in an attempt to foresee future market price changes and make profits of it; they improve market liquidity, provide liveness and destabilize prices
Arbitrageurs seek to profit from price discrepancies between exchanges or markets; they allow for the price to be uniform across different markets and help customers to get the best possible prices regardless of the market they want to buy or sell on; they also improve market liquidity; arbitrageurs on bitshares can work between bitshares and external markets but also between various internal bitshares markets
Arbitrageurs, makers, and speculators often use software tools to provide market services 24/7.
There are various types of market players, they have different goals and use different strategies. Together, they create liquid and dynamic markets allowing for quick asset exchanges at fair prices and lowest costs possible.