economy
January 22, 2026
Retail traders keep their hot streak going, buying Tuesday’s dip while Wall Street drove ‘Sell America’ trade
Individual traders boosted the stock market by continuing to buy the latest selloff — the same strategy that helped power relentless gains in 2025, data shows.
TL;DR
- Retail traders bought the dip this week as market volatility surged, a strategy consistent with their 2025 playbook.
- Stocks experienced their worst day since October on Tuesday due to President Trump's threats regarding Greenland and new tariffs, but rebounded Wednesday.
- Institutional investors adopted a "sell America" trade, causing U.S. equities and the dollar to fall while bond yields and gold rose.
- Retail investors' buying on Tuesday was the third-largest single day for such activity in a year.
- Flows into stocks from individual investors this week nearly doubled the 12-month average.
- Retail investors showed increased attention to precious metals and international equities.
- Some market participants viewed the action as a "Trump Always Chickens Out" (TACO) trade, anticipating policy reversals.
- Retail investors in January are building on a strong 2025, with earlier focus on energy stocks and silver, and more recently on technology stocks like Nvidia and Intel.
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