Читать книгу The Handbook of Technical Analysis + Test Bank - Lim Mark Andrew - Страница 18

Market participants comprise the average investors and traders, financial institutions, commercial and central banks, hedgers, arbitrageurs, brokers, hedge funds, mutual and pension funds, and so on. Here are the eight main categories of market participants:

1. Retail

2. Institutional

3. Speculator

4. Supply Side

5. Demand Side

6. Professional

7. Investor

8. Novice

Market participants may also be categorized as:

• Discretionary Traders

• Nondiscretionary Traders

But there are many other ways of categorizing market participants. We can categorize them by the amount of time they spend in the markets or by the methodology that they employ when trading or investing in the markets. Figure 1.33 lists the five main groups of market participants by the amount of time they spend in the markets.

Figure 1.33 Market Participants by Way of Time Spent in the Markets.

Figure 1.34 lists the same five groups of market participants by way of the methodology that they employ when trading or investing in the markets.

Figure 1.34 Market Participants by Way of Trading and Investing Methodology.

Popular Markets and Instruments

Market participants may trade and invest in either the main markets or instruments that allow access to these markets. These instruments are also referred to as derivatives, since they are derived from the main underlying markets. For example, a market participant may participate in gold in several ways:

• By buying the physical Gold itself (main market)

• By buying or selling a futures contract on Gold (derivative)

• By buying or selling an options contract on Gold (derivative)

• By investing in Gold-backed ETF shares (derivative)

• By investing and trading Gold via contracts for difference (CFD) (derivative)

See Figure 1.35 for a visual summary of popular markets and their derivatives.

Figure 1.35 Popular Markets and Instruments.