Retail Investor

A retail investor is an individual who buys and sells securities for a personal account, as opposed to an institution trading on behalf of pooled client or company money. Retail investors typically trade in far smaller size and do not have the research staff, direct exchange access, or negotiated fees institutions command.

Retail order flow has grown sharply as commission-free trading and mobile apps lowered the barrier to entry, and it is now large enough in aggregate that some individual stocks see meaningful price impact from coordinated retail buying, a dynamic that barely existed a generation ago.