According to the different nature of its subject, institutional investors can be divided into corporate legal persons, financial institutions, governments and their institutions.
Enterprise legal person is the trading subject of the securities market, playing the dual roles of capital supplier and capital demander. Corporate investment has two main purposes: one is to increase the value of assets, and the other is to participate in management. This kind of investment is generally long-term, with large transaction volume, but relatively stable.
In the securities market, all individuals or institutions that contribute to the purchase of securities such as stocks and bonds are collectively referred to as securities investors. In a broad sense, institutional investors refer to legal institutions that specialize in securities investment activities with their own funds or funds raised from scattered public hands.
In western countries, securities companies, investment companies, insurance companies, various welfare funds, pension funds and financial consortia, which take securities investment income as an important source of income, are collectively referred to as institutional investors.