Institutional Trader


An institutional trader manages relatively large amounts of capital, compared to most traders.  Institutional traders will typically have larger positions and hold them for longer periods of time.  When they trade, they often trade large numbers of shares at once.

It's often said that institutional traders are the ones who really move the markets.  They create the large, sustained price changes.  Most of the noise in the markets comes from day traders, trying to see what the institutions are doing and acting accordingly.  The remaining investors do not make a serious impact on the market.

We offer a variety of longer term alerts, such as the VWAP and the 200 day moving average alerts, aimed specifically at the institutional investors.  We also offer a variety of shorter term alerts, like the block trade and running up alerts, specifically aimed at people trying to follow the institutional investors.

Alert Types

We offer the following alert types which are related to this topic.  Click on the icon for a detailed description of the alert, or click on the "more" link for additional examples of each type of alert.

Type Recent Examples More Examples
Time (NY) Symbol Message
New high (filtered)Nov 20th, 5:40:01 PMGS.CATNew High: +0.10. Next resistance 20.35 from 11/19/2009.more
New low (filtered)Nov 20th, 4:19:19 PMHALNew Low: -0.05. Next support 28.63 from 11/3/2009.more
Crossed above close (confirmed)Nov 20th, 5:02:22 PMBPIPrice crossed above close (16.33). Confirmed by volume.more
Crossed below close (confirmed)Nov 20th, 5:47:47 PMCYTRPrice crossed below close (1.14). Confirmed by volume.more
ConsolidationNov 20th, 7:54:59 PMSVAStrong consolidation (Improving). $7.48-7.55. Shares: 1,165,599. Time: 8 hours 56 minutes.more
Running upNov 20th, 7:56:18 PMBNXRunning up: +0.1499 in less than one minute.more
Running downNov 20th, 7:43:33 PMBBIRunning down: -0.03 in less than one minute.more
Running up (confirmed)Nov 20th, 7:52:28 PMINORunning up briskly: +0.04 in 2 hours 18 minutes. Confirmed by volume.more
Running down (confirmed)Nov 20th, 5:02:22 PMEEFTRunning down: -0.08 in 62 minutes 21 seconds. Confirmed by volume.more
Crossed above 200 day moving averageNov 20th, 4:14:18 PMSEVAPrice crossed above 200 day SMA (0.0031). Confirmed by volume.more
Crossed below 200 day moving averageNov 20th, 4:38:41 PMABGPrice crossed below 200 day SMA (9.692). Confirmed by volume.more
Crossed above 50 day moving averageNov 20th, 7:26:15 PMINOPrice crossed above 50 day SMA (1.423). Confirmed by volume.more
Crossed below 50 day moving averageNov 20th, 4:52:04 PMFWLTPrice crossed below 50 day SMA (31.9322). Confirmed by volume.more
Crossed above 20 day moving averageNov 20th, 4:54:15 PMSMHPrice crossed above 20 day SMA (25.0945). Confirmed by volume.more
Crossed below 20 day moving averageNov 20th, 5:01:51 PMITPrice crossed below 20 day SMA (19.1765). Confirmed by volume.more
Crossed above VWAPNov 20th, 7:26:15 PMINOPrice crossed above VWAP (1.5233). Confirmed by volume.more
Crossed below VWAPNov 20th, 5:41:12 PMBCSPrice crossed below VWAP (20.2486). Confirmed by volume.more
Channel breakoutNov 20th, 7:58:07 PMSVUChannel breakout from $14.91-15.00, 9 hours 21 minutes.more
Channel breakdownNov 20th, 7:59:48 PMYHOOChannel breakdown from $15.37-15.42, 5 hours 14 minutes.more
Block tradeNov 20th, 7:59:50 PMFNMBlock trade. At the bid. (NASDAQ)more

See Also

Block Trade, Noise, VWAP