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Retail investors were buyers during the recent rollercoaster in U.S. stock markets, taking advantage of a sharp decline in popular tech shares, according to various research reports. However, they also exhibited signs of caution.
Despite the fact that indexes fell by about 2.6% to 3.4% in busy trading on Monday due to a wave of anxiety regarding economic data and earnings news and further exacerbated by the unwind of yen-funded trades, a sizable number of individual investors continued to buy.

Vanda Research, a market research and analysis firm based in New York, discovered that individual investors who were swept up in the market storm continued to be net purchasers of shares of companies such as Nvidia, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. Additionally, they increased their purchases of an exchange-traded fund that monitors 20-year Treasury bonds.
The data depicts the activity of self-directed individual investors who do not rely on a large brokerage firm, financial adviser, or private bank to manage their trading activity, according to Marco Iachini, senior vice president of research at Vanda. “There was no retail capitulation,” he stated.

“Retail investors continue their dip-buying spree,” Iachini reported.
According to data provided by the company’s founder, Vladimir Tenev, Robinhood Markets received $1 billion in new capital from retail investor clients during the first week of August. According to him, $500 million was deposited into client accounts during Monday’s sell-off, which is greater than the second-quarter daily average of less than $350 million.
Tenev informed analysts during Robinhood’s earnings call on Thursday that the firm’s clients were unable to execute orders on Robinhood during overnight sessions due to the “extreme demand” from clients, which Blue Ocean ATS, which executes those trades, was unable to manage.
Retail investors were “aggressive net sellers” on Monday, according to a separate report published by analysts at JP Morgan. The majority of the selling pressure was experienced in the first hour of trading. The bank did not respond to inquiries for comment.

Vanda and JPMorgan both reported that retail investors were resolute purchasers during the market’s recovery on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, Vanda observed on Thursday that the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF was the second-most actively purchased security after Nvidia shares by Thursday morning, as retail investors’ interest in the ETF surged during the recovery.
Iachini suggested that this could suggest that “mom-and-pop traders” are becoming increasingly concerned about the stock market and are seeking a secure haven for a portion of their holdings.
Rob Austin, the head of research at Alight Solutions, discovered that the investors it monitors were actively transitioning their assets from stock funds to money markets and fixed-income products. The company monitors trading activity in approximately 2 million 401(k) retirement accounts.
Austin stated that trading was approximately eight times the average, despite the fact that the firm’s assets, which total $200 billion, were only 0.1% of the total, shifted from one investment strategy to another.