Retail Traders’ Tech Buying Spree Pays Off After Meta Drop

(Bloomberg) -- Meta Platforms Inc.'s record-setting crash triggered a fire sale for tech peers, setting up retail investors to snap up cheaper shares ahead of Friday's turnaround.

The buy-the-dip crowd was out in full force on Thursday, piling into Amazon.com Inc. and Snap Inc. as Wall Street surveyed the investing landscape after Meta Platforms' blowup. That buying proved prescient as investors were immediately rewarded with big rallies for the online retailer and social media platform after quarterly results of their own.

Retail investors pushed more than $700 million into Meta Platforms, Amazon and Snap as well as technology-focused exchange-traded funds on Thursday, data compiled by Vanda show. Separate data from Fidelity showed Meta and Amazon were the most bought assets on its platform Thursday.

That dip-buying was rewarded as Amazon surged as much as 13% and Snap by 55%, driving retail-trader favorite ETFs like the levered ProShares UltraPro QQQ (ticker TQQQ) to rebound. A sign that retail investors took advantage of Friday's sharp rebound was apparent with Amazon and Snap seeing the largest number of sell orders on Fidelity's platform.

The data show that retail investors are still quick to buy any weakness for shares of companies they follow despite concerns that they were on the brink of capitulating.

Other tech stocks like PayPal Holdings Inc., Qualcomm Inc. and Apple Inc. saw increased retail trader demand Thursday, with individuals buying roughly $75 million worth of the three, Vanda data show.

While the buy-the-dip trend is the calling card of retail investors, the market's choppy start to the year likely has many traders sitting in the red. Despite Friday's gains for Amazon and Snap, they are well below levels seen recently.

The S&P 500 Index remains about 7% below its Jan. 3 closing high as retail trader darlings Tesla Inc. and Ford Motor Co. are each down 14% to start the year.