Upstairs Market
Market Microstructure glossary · Market Microstructure Fundamentals
Definition
The off-exchange network of block-trading desks where large institutional orders are negotiated bilaterally to avoid market impact on the lit book.
Upstairs Market in plain English
When a giant investor like a pension fund wants to buy millions of shares, doing it out in the open would spook everyone and drive the price up before they finished. The "upstairs market" is the private back-room solution: a network of specialist desks where these huge trades are quietly negotiated one-on-one, away from the public exchange. Think of it like buying a rare car — instead of starting a bidding war at a crowded auction, you phone a dealer and hammer out a price in private. The whole point is to move a mountain of shares without moving the price against yourself.
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