Institutional buying breadth by year

How widely the three institutional investor groups were buying each year — measured by how many stocks they were net buyers of, not by how much money moved.

as_of
2026-09-03
Sample period
2012-05-022026-09-03
Rows
15

Methodology

On each trading day, count the stocks the three institutional groups were net buyers of, and divide by the number of stocks they had any net position in that day. That gives one breadth figure per day; the year's figure is the average of those days. It counts companies, not dollars or shares.

Yearly figures from 2012. Breadth and money are different questions: a year can be broad and small, or narrow and large. This page only answers the first.

What this means, and how to use it

Use it to tell a broad institutional bid from a concentrated one. A high figure means they were buying across the market rather than crowding into a few names, which is the difference between a market-wide move and a story about two or three stocks. It says nothing about how much they bought or whether the buying was right. History, not a forecast.

Share of stocks net bought, by year

Share of stocks net bought, by year
YearNet boughtNet soldStocks countedTrading days
201251.9%46.4%770168
201351.5%47%782228
201448.9%49.8%827244
201546%52.4%843239
201648.2%49.8%843229
201749.7%48.6%885223
201847.4%48.5%3,832245
201946.9%48.9%3,833242
202047.7%48.2%4,456245
202147.9%48.3%4,907244
202246.3%49.9%4,766246
202347.3%49.6%5,889240
202447.7%50.2%6,615242
202547.5%49.9%6,238243
202650.6%47.3%5,154161

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