An institutional investor or brokerage that provides exchange services to buy-side traders or buy-side institutions. Examples of sell-side institutions include institutional dealers (market makers, floor traders, specialists, etc), institutional brokers (retail brokers, discount brokers, etc), and institutional broker-dealers (wirehouses such as investment banks). Sell-side institutions earn trading profits by supplying liquidity to the market and earn trading commissions by arranging trades for buy-side institutions/traders.