Regarding the question of whether the float was reduced by any net movement to institutions during yesterdays high volume of trading.
Nobody took up that discussion started by Flipper, so although I don't know the answer to that question, I am trying to get that discussion started again.
I can't tell from Yahoo Finance how the shares total up, ie, whether the institutional holdings are part of the float or not. They don't provide a complete stack-up to allow cross checking what is implied by their listing the institutional holdings separate from the float. And the NASDAQ website is currently down for such info.
I am sure there are plenty of people on the message board that know these things for certain, so hoping they chime in.
From Investopedia:
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Definition of 'Floating Stock'
The number of shares available for trading of a particular stock.
Floating stock is calculated by subtracting closely-held shares and restricted stock from a firm’s total outstanding shares. Closely-held shares are those owned by insiders, major shareholders and employees, while restricted stock refers to insider shares that cannot be traded because of a temporary restriction such as the lock-up period after an initial public offering. A stock with a small float will generally be more volatile than a stock with a large float, apart from having limited liquidity and wider bid-ask spread. Because of these issues, institutional investors seldom invest in low-float stocks. Also known as share float or simply “float”.
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They don't mention institutions specifically, but they probably fall under the category of "major shareholders". But what if an institution doesn't have a huge number of shares? And what if there are enough such institutions to make a big impact?
It's embarrassing that I don't know the answer to these questions, but it is also a little strange that these things are not spelled out clearly on sites like Yahoo finance, or even here on Investopedia. In fact, Yahoo finance is somewhat infamous for posting highly inaccurate numbers for total outstanding shares and insider shares.
