What is “Wall Street”?

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A simple distinction from “The Economics of Contempt”

In general, when I talk about “Wall Street,” I’m referring to the major dealer banks (both domestic and foreign) and the two big custodian banks. Specifically, I’m referring to the following institutions:

1. Goldman Sachs

2. Morgan Stanley

3. JPMorgan

4. Deutsche Bank

5. Barclays

6. BofA-Merrill Lynch

7. UBS

8. Citigroup

9. Credit Suisse

10. SocGen

11. BNP Paribas

12. RBS

13. Wells Fargo/Wachovia Securities

14. Nomura

15. HSBC

16. BNY-Mellon

17. State Street

[…]

When you hear people in the industry say things like, “the Street is short 2YR swaps,” they’re generally talking about these institutions. They’re not talking about hedge funds, or PIMCO, or boutique firms that have offices in lower Manhattan. It’s really just a relatively small group of major dealer banks.

via Economics of Contempt: Defining “Wall Street”.