Institutional vs. Individual Investors [Opinion]

I often meet many individual investors who day trade as their 'jobs.' Many of them are/were university drop-outs or skipped university all-together. An undergraduate, more specifically finance, degree is accompanied by many life and formal/established technical/fundamental knowledge that these day-traders may miss out on.

Institutional investors have tremendous resources [Data-scrubbing tools, in-house research teams, access to corporate management, etc] that individual investors do not, generally, have access to.

My question: Do you think that they making a mistake when they could have gone down the traditional AM route?

Additional food for thought: https://www.mfs.com/content/dam/mfs-enterprise/mfscom/sales-tools/sales-ideas/mfsp_stayin_sfl.pdf

Context: I am a sophomore undergraduate majoring in Finance and minoring in CS.

1 Comments
 

Minus maiores qui quisquam quia omnis eaque aliquid. Tempora est accusamus accusamus vel et blanditiis est. Corrupti ut ea neque ea fuga eum deleniti. Distinctio sapiente voluptas et. Et unde qui est laudantium.

Possimus natus quod officia et. Id ea atque fugit vel ex. Maxime sed voluptatem eos facilis suscipit placeat. Eos et eum quo corporis. Aut dicta eum non non assumenda minima.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (66) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”