This is typically up for debate but financial markets are known to be traded by a wide variety of participants, including individual investors, institutional investors, hedge funds, investment banks, and market makers.

Individual investors typically trade through brokerage firms, either online or through traditional brokers. Institutional investors, such as pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance companies, often have dedicated trading teams or work with external asset managers to execute trades on their behalf.

Hedge funds are private investment funds that use a wide range of strategies to generate returns for their investors. They often trade actively and can use leverage and derivatives to amplify returns.

Investment banks play a critical role in the financial markets, providing liquidity and facilitating the issuance of securities. They also engage in proprietary trading and can act as market makers, buying and selling securities to provide liquidity to the market.

Market makers are firms that buy and sell securities on a continuous basis to provide liquidity to the market. They typically earn a profit from the spread between the bid and ask prices of the securities they trade.

What many people fail to understand is that the financial markets, although include a number of participants with varying capital, almost all, apart from retail traders utilise some form of algorithmic bots based on quantitative rules. Over the past 20 years, there has been a significant increase in algorithmic trading and the use of trading bots in the financial markets. These are computer programs that can automatically execute trades based on pre-defined rules or algorithms. Algorithmic trading can provide faster and more efficient execution of trades but can also contribute to market volatility and flash crashes if not properly managed.

According to a report by the TABB Group, algorithmic and high-frequency trading accounted for approximately 90% of US equity trading volume in 2021. However, the extent of algorithmic and bot activity can vary widely by market and asset class.