Individuals vs. Institutions
                       As  a  day  trader  you  have  the  least  amount  ofinformation of any of the players involved in the  stock.  The  institutionsbuying and selling the stock that day know what they want to get  done.  Thebrokerage firms that are talking to these specific accounts  are  trying  togenerate commissions by getting a good piece of business done. They know  toa great extent what the institutions are trying to buy or sell and  at  whatlevels. Once the institution gives a brokerage firm the order  to,  in  thiscase, sell stock (AOL), that order is passed along  to  the  firms  in-housefloor broker or to an independent floor broker who is  called  a  two-dollarbroker.                       As the brokerage firm is working the AOL  sell  orderfor the institution, their sales trading desk is  making  calls  to  variouskinds of institutions trying to find buyers for AOL  which  would  help  theseller  and  also  generate  more  commissions.  The  information  flow  nowincludes the institutions that gave the sell order to  the  brokerage  firm,the floor broker on NYSE, the specialists on NYSE who now know there  is  aninstitutional AOL seller, and the various kinds of  institutions  that  werecalled by the brokerage firm that  was  trying  to  leverage  the  AOL  sellorder. The institution that initiated the AOL sell  order  is  also  gettingcalls from other brokerage firms regarding  different  stocks  and  possiblyAOL. All of these institutional players have various levels  of  informationregarding the supply/demand level of AOL  that  day  which  could  influencetheir trading decision.