Page "Capital market" Paragraph 14

A variety of different players are active in the secondary markets.

Regular individuals account for a small porportion of trading, though their share has slightly increased ; in the 20th century it was mostly only a few wealthy individuals who could afford an account with a broker, but accounts are now much cheaper and accessible over the internet.

There are numerous small traders who can buy and sell on the secondary markets using platforms provided by brokers which are accessible with web browsers.

When such an individual trades on the capital markets, it will often involve a two stage transaction.

First they place an order with their broker, then the broker executes the trade.

If the trade can be done on an exchange, the process will often be fully automated.

If a dealer needs to manually intervene, this will often mean a larger fee.

Traders in investment banks will often make deals on their bank's behalf, as well as excuting trades for their clients.

Penson and Sovereign wealth funds tend to have the largest holdings, though they tend to buy only the highest grade ( safest ) types of bonds and shares, and often dont trade all that frequently.

According to a 2012 Financial Times article, hedge funds are increasingly making most of the short term trades in large sections of the capital market ( like the UK and US stock exchanges ), which is making it harder for them to maintain their historically high returns, as they are increasingly finding themselves trading with each other rather than with less sophisticated investors.