Investor's wiki

Large Trader

Large Trader

What Is a Large Trader?

A large trader is an investor or organization with trades that are equivalent to or surpass certain amounts as determined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A large trader is defined by the SEC as "a person whose transactions in National Market System (NMS) securities equivalent or surpass 2,000,000 shares or $20 million during any calendar day, or 20 million shares or $200 million during any calendar month."

Any market participant who is, by definition, a large trader must distinguish themselves to the SEC and submit Form 13H, "Large Trader Registration: Information Required of Large Traders Pursuant to Section 13(h) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules Thereunder."

Seeing Large Traders

The SEC initiated large trader reporting according to the Market Reform Act of 1990 and in response to the development of trading technology that empowers trading in substantial volumes and fast execution speeds. Large traders are normally professional market participants and large institutional investors, for example, mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds, banks, and insurance companies.

Large traders can buy and sell large blocks of securities, like stocks and bonds. In the Market Reform Act of 1990, the SEC refered to the rising noticeable quality of large traders and high-frequency traders (HFTs) in the markets and the requirement for further developed access to their trading activity in NMS securities.

Large Trader Reporting

Large trader reporting is expected to assist the SEC with recognizing people participated in critical market activity and examine the impact of their trading activity on the market. It additionally supports SEC examinations and enforcement activities. Starting around 2011, the SEC expects that all traders who execute a substantial amount of trading activity, as estimated by volume or market value, recognize themselves to the SEC by enlisting with the SEC through Form 13H.

The SEC appoints every large trade an identification number, gathers information, and examines every large trader's trading activity. The SEC relegates large traders a Large Trader Identification Number (LTID), which must be outfitted to their particular broker-dealers. The large trader must likewise recognize to which accounts the LTID applies.

Registered broker-dealers must keep up with records of their traders' LTIDs and executed transaction times, as well as monitor their clients' accounts for activity qualifying as large trading. Likewise, they must report transactions by large traders that equivalent or surpass the activity level or aggregate transactions in NMS securities. The SEC might request subtleties of transactions, to which the broker-dealer must go along by sending information through the Electronic Blue Sheets (EBS) system.

The SEC purposes the information accumulated from the Electronic Blue Sheets system to investigate the reasons for trading volatility and to decide whether large traders are breaking any securities laws, for example, those associated with insider trading.

Special Considerations

Large traders must present an initial filing through Form 13H and an annual filing for each applicable calendar year. Notwithstanding annual updates, large traders are permitted to submit quarterly updates to the SEC assuming their information has changed or is mistaken.

A large trader who has not directed the distinguishing amount of trading activity as estimated by volume or market value may file for inactive status and can stay inactive and exempt from the filing requirements until the large trader trading level is made once more. Those needing to end their status must report the termination of its operations as a large trader on Form 13H during the next filing period.

Highlights

  • Mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds, banks, and insurance companies frequently fall into the category of large traders.
  • The SEC recognizes large traders as any trader whose transactions in National Market Securities (NMS) equals or surpasses 2,000,000 shares or $20 million during any calendar day, or 20 million shares or $200 million during any calendar month.
  • A large trader is an investor or organization whose trades equivalent or surpass volume and market value thresholds laid out by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
  • The SEC monitors the activity of large traders to dissect the impact of their activity on the markets, to distinguish activity that breaks securities laws, and to safeguard investors from manipulative market practices.
  • Large traders are generally professional market participants and institutional investors that can buy and sell large blocks of securities.