Ciena Corp., for example, traded lower by about 50 percent this week, during a time when 91 percent of the stock's trades were institutional. Similarly, institutions accounted for about 52 percent of the trades in Juniper Networks Inc., which fell as much as 45 percent off its weekly high. The chip sector, of which both companies are a part, also saw analysts this week downgrade some companies or express concerns about their outlooks ahead. But these institutions might not all be mutual funds, so it's hard to tell exactly how much of this might be window-dressing. A year ago, you could have said that day trading was moving some of the Nasdaq stocks, but that's no longer true.
Institutional buyers buy more and more often.
Statistics from the two biggest stock marketplaces also show the influence of large buys. Nearly 52 percent of the volume on the New York Stock Exchange in 2000 came from block trades, which are transactions of more than 10,000 shares. On the Nasdaq Stock Market, block trades made up 25 percent of the volume during the same time. But size isn't everything and, at the end of the day, individual investors still have a lot of power. Although they may not directly buy the most stock, their investments are the engine for the stock market's growth and activity.