This investment apartheid relates to the gossip that does the rounds in the City's dealing rooms. It includes the terabytes and petabytes of expensive data that institutions churn to find the quantitative patterns that could lead to superior returns. And - especially contentious - it extends to access to the guys who run listed companies. Whereas institutional investors can rub shoulders with the bosses of UK plc, private investors are left with their noses pressed up against the window pane - only the glass is opaque.
It is understandable that private investors should feel this way - basically because it's true. They don't have the money, the means or the access available to institutional investors; there is no getting away from that. To the extent that this absence equals a lack of information, then - the argument runs - it must leave private investors at a disadvantage. After all, investment is all about having information, processing it and reaching the right conclusion. If you don't have the information in the first place, obviously it's not possible to reach that conclusion.