George, Here's the response from I-Watch, RE their connotation for the term "institutional."
Dear Cheryl,
We define institutional and retail as the following:
Retail: A trade reported by a broker that primarily executes on behalf of
retail investors. Trimark Knight and Charles Schwab's Mayer Schweitzer
branch execute the bulk of the online retail trades, including both Charles
Schwab and Datek. So, yes, your trades would be included in the retail
section of the pie.
Institutional: A trade reported by a major brokerage firm who typically
trades on behalf of major mutual funds/portfolio managers. While these
firms also have retail branches, the amount of trades reported on behalf of
institutional investors dwarfs the limited amount of retail trades that get
reported.
When a broker acts on behalf of its own house accounts, as a market-maker,
it is considered institutional activity. This is because when an
institutional broker reports a trade to AutEx, it is impossible to tell
whether this trade was executed on behalf of an institutional client of or
on behalf of the firm's own house trading accounts. While trading patterns
for trades executed on behalf of an institutional clients and those made for
market maker purposes tend to differ, the fact that big money is behind the
trades in both scenarios, means these investors/traders both have the
ability to move markets.
Thank you for your interest in Thomson I-Watch,
Rebecca Lennon
Senior Analyst
Thomson I-Watch
rlennon@thomsoninvest.net
www.thomsoninvest.net/iwatch/
-----Original Message-----
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(cheryl galt) sent the following
Comments: How do you define "institutional?"
When I buy my puny shares through Schwab or Datek, are they likely to
register as "retail?" |
