Retail traders bought up U.S. stocks at the fastest pace ever recorded in January, as inflows from traders using electronic brokerages surpassed the previous peak from the height of the meme-stock craze in 2021 according to data from Vanda Research. After shunning stocks for the safety of money-market funds last year, retail traders poured an average of $1.51 billion per day into the U.S. equity market last month on a net basis, with buyers snapping up shares of some of their favorite megacap names like Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
+3.10%
and Nvidia Corp.
NVDA,
-2.79%.
Their buying coincided with a surge in U.S. equity prices after the major U.S. indexes recorded double-digit declines in 2022. The Nasdaq Composite, home to many retail favorites, surged nearly 11% during January, its best month since November 2020, according to FactSet data. The previous peak in retail inflows occurred started in January 2021 and continued into early February of that year, just as prices of GameStop Corp.
GME,
+1.81%,
AMC Inc.
AMC,
-0.19%
and other meme stocks soared to what were then record highs, a representative for Vanda Research said.
VANDA RESEARCH
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