The vast majority of market transactions including both stocks and derivatives are by institutional investors, think hedge funds and pension funds. They buy securities using the capital given to them and take a portion, they really don't own it they're just investing on someone else's behalf.
I don't see a single response which mentions Vanguard or Blackrock, so here we go.
The largest owners of equities in the United States are index fund providers, like the companies named above. In essence, Blackrock owns about 14% of the market. They manage over $7 trillion in assets. You might have heard of iShares, the ETF provider. That's Blackrock. Vanguard is second, and State Street, the creators of the SPY S&P 500 index fund, are also up there.
Who owns index funds? In short, everyone. An index fund can be the entire S&P 500, or it can be a specific sector. State Street has the SPDR family of funds, so if you want to buy exposure to just the technology sector, you can buy XLK. If you have retirement savings through a company like Betterment or Wealthsimple, they manage your money by investing in index funds. They do this because its cheap, and because it is nearly imposssible to consistently beat the broad market. It lets you have exposure to stocks, fixed income, emerging markets, everything you're supposed to do to save for retirement.
Someone else mentioned institutional investors, and yes, they make up a large portion of the market, but they are tiny compared to the index fund providers. Fidelity has mutual funds that it sells to people, but they also have ETFs like FDIS or FCOM.
Is wealth concentrated at the top? Absolutely. Does Jeff Bezos's fortune come close to the ownership of funds like VOO? Not even remotely.
![image showing [Request] Accurate breakdown of who owns the stock market?](55027c39-baf0-57b8-9d87-ffb64367d009.jpg)
goose-and-fish on August 20th, 2020 at 00:34 UTC »
According to this NYT article 84% of stocks are owned by 10% of households.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/business/economy/stocks-economy.html
That being said, the spirit of the post is false. My 401k might be a drop in the bucket, but I am certainly glad when the market does well.
rishiaila on August 20th, 2020 at 01:22 UTC »
The vast majority of market transactions including both stocks and derivatives are by institutional investors, think hedge funds and pension funds. They buy securities using the capital given to them and take a portion, they really don't own it they're just investing on someone else's behalf.
yungpriests on August 20th, 2020 at 03:44 UTC »
I don't see a single response which mentions Vanguard or Blackrock, so here we go.
The largest owners of equities in the United States are index fund providers, like the companies named above. In essence, Blackrock owns about 14% of the market. They manage over $7 trillion in assets. You might have heard of iShares, the ETF provider. That's Blackrock. Vanguard is second, and State Street, the creators of the SPY S&P 500 index fund, are also up there.
Who owns index funds? In short, everyone. An index fund can be the entire S&P 500, or it can be a specific sector. State Street has the SPDR family of funds, so if you want to buy exposure to just the technology sector, you can buy XLK. If you have retirement savings through a company like Betterment or Wealthsimple, they manage your money by investing in index funds. They do this because its cheap, and because it is nearly imposssible to consistently beat the broad market. It lets you have exposure to stocks, fixed income, emerging markets, everything you're supposed to do to save for retirement.
Someone else mentioned institutional investors, and yes, they make up a large portion of the market, but they are tiny compared to the index fund providers. Fidelity has mutual funds that it sells to people, but they also have ETFs like FDIS or FCOM.
Is wealth concentrated at the top? Absolutely. Does Jeff Bezos's fortune come close to the ownership of funds like VOO? Not even remotely.