> I think it depends on how much dollar volume they contribute. Generally this is the common view on institutions, but the term "whales" is also common and ind

> I think it depends on how much dollar volume they contribute. Generally this is the common view on institutions, but the term "whales" is also common and indicates positional leverage (vs. identity leverage) in understanding market flow. You/op may want to go upmarket and talk to firms about this for research purposes. > I also don't see everyone switching to index funds anytime soon -- people want to get rich quick. Whether intentional or not, this phrasing suggests the quintessential beginner's mindset on a thing they are new to: Either people go the way I'm comfortable seeing things, OR they represent the completely opposite mindset to my own. There is also another false dichotomy tucked in here, one which leads many market-beginners to undershoot or overshoot appropriate risk mindsets. It is actually very common for a trader to be simultaneously a day trader, swing trader, and investor depending on the part of their capital they are working on in a given moment on a given day. For example they might manage up/down an investment position, open a swing, and hold off on a given day trade--all on the same day. Beating the market is also a really ineffective mental model for understanding what traders are trying to do with their trading systems. It is commonly used as a straw-man theme to perpetuate an argument over unrealistic risk stereotypes. Individual traders may post in retrospect that they beat a market, but usually their goal specification has nothing to do with beating a market. While the goal may thus seem to overlap in a hand-wavy way, the usual specification they work from yields specific leverage that helps _specific_ traders beat markets because the spec is more like running a quality trading system in a subjective manner.