The buy side of the trading industry includes individuals, funds, firms, and governments that use the markets to help solve various problems they face.These problems typically originate outside of trading markets. For example, investors use securities markets to solve intertemporal cash flow problems: They have income today that they would like to have available in the future. They use the markets to buy stocks and bonds to move their income from the present to the future.
Many buy-side institutions are pension funds, mutual funds, trusts, endowments, and foundations that invest money. These institutions are known collectively as investment sponsors. Investment sponsors frequently employ investment advisers to manage their funds. Investment advisers are also called investment counselors, investment managers, or portfolio managers. Investment advisers often employ traders to implement their trading decisions. These traders are buy-side traders. The people and institutions who will ultimately benefit from the funds that investment sponsors hold are beneficiaries。
