Definition of Buy side and Sell side

Buy side members

Buy side includes investing institutions that buy a large portions of securities or assets in any asset classes for Money Management and Asset Management purposes and perform Discretionary Mandates. They include Mutual Funds, Pension Funds, Private Equity Funds, Unit Trust, Hedge Funds, and Proprietary Trading Desks, Family Offices, Fund of Private Equity Funds, Fund of Hedge Funds, Ventured Capital and Angel Funds.

Sell side members

Sell-side entities provide recommendations for upgrades, downgrades, target prices and opinions to the public market. They are mainly Service Providers such as Prime Brokers, Execution Brokers, Lawyers, Private Bankers, Custodian Banks, Accountants, Auditors, Fund Administrators, Institutional Sales, Sales Traders, Corporate Finance, Equity Capital Market, DCM and Sell-side Research or Independent Research.