Skip to content ETFs Review Our ETFs Start an ETF Research New? Start Here Blog Academic Research Books About Firm Team Strategies 1042 QRP Solutions Long-Only Custom Solutions Search Institutional Investor Attention Institutional investors are supposed to process information efficiently, read everything that matters, and adjust portfolios rationally. But in practice, attention is scarce. Funds must choose what to read, when to read it, and whether to focus on macro conditions or individual firms. This paper opens that black box. Using direct data on what institutional investors actually read online, it shows that attention is a real economic resource. Funds that reallocate attention toward macro news when volatility rises perform better. Funds also pay more attention to the stocks they own, and that attention helps them make more valuable position and trading decisions.…