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.