Series 79: Individual Investors

Individual Investors

Individual investors invest on their own behalf (as opposed to individuals who manage the portfolios of others). There are many more individual investors in the world than there are institutional investors: every employee with a 401(k), every grandma with a savings bond, and every CNBC viewer, Money reader, and Motley Fool browser who dabbles with stock picks swells their ranks.

Most individual investors invest in securities through conduits such as mutual funds or ETFs. Those investors who do invest directly are often referred to as retail investors. Such investors traditionally made investments through full-service retail brokerages, although discount online brokerages have become much more popular in recent years. While the aggregate amount of retail investment in the financial markets is very larg