[notouch]

The Amex Institutional Index is completely different from the Institutional Holdings Index. Both of them are sort of interesting but they don't really tell us what "big brother" is up to. Google, for example, is in the Institutional Holdings Index but is also very popular with retail investors. So if retail investors started dumping their Google stocks this would have a negative impact on the Institutional Holdings Index but the institutions could be buying what retail is selling. Also we don't know who these "institutions" are. They probably include pension and mutual funds who are usually classified as "dumb money". Trading syndicates on the other hand are not institutions even though they are definitely smart money.