sell side


Sell Side

The retail brokers and small investors who sell securities on Wall Street. See also: Buy side.

sell side

The portion of the securities business in which orders are transacted. The sell side includes retail brokers, institutional brokers and traders, and research departments. If an institutional portfolio manager changes jobs and becomes a registered representative, he or she has moved from the buy side to the sell side. Compare buy side.

Sell side.

Brokerage firms and other financial services companies that buy and sell investments as agents for retail investors as well as for their own accounts are described as the sell side of Wall Street.

Sell-side institutions employ analysts to research potential investments and make buy, hold, or sell recommendations that the firm's brokers may make available to their clients to help guide their investment decisions.