Retail Traders Stick to Dip-Buying Ways With Record Purchases

(Bloomberg) -- Retail investors are betting that Wall Street's unease over the omicron variant and the Federal Reserve's signal of stepped-up efforts to combat inflation are misplaced.

Individuals stuck to their dip-buying ways on Tuesday, plowing a net $2.22 billion into the market, a single-day record, data compiled by Vanda Research show. That brought net purchases over the past week to $7.36 billion. Retail traders preferred to snap up index-tracking exchange-traded funds as well as large-cap technology companies.

Day traders focused on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (ticker SPY), buying a net $311 million, and Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (ticker QQQ), adding a net $132 million. Technology heavyweights including Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Apple Inc., and Uber Technologies Inc. were among the most-bought stocks by retail investors, according to Vanda data, while Nvidia Corp. and Tesla Inc. were among the most-purchased on Fidelity's platform.

In addition to buying the broader market dip, retail traders were swift to snatch up shares of AT&T Inc. as the stock closed at a 12-year low after an executive warned of slowing customer growth. 

“Retail investors are usually contrarian, they buy the dip aggressively whenever equities are selling off,” Vanda research analyst Giacomo Pierantoni said in an email. “That's why classic and levered equity ETFs such as SPY, QQQ, TQQQ experienced large retail inflows yesterday.”

The buy-the-dip mentality from investors who have bought into the YOLO mantra -- you only live once -- hasn't been completely misplaced in the past. While the S&P 500 Index is down roughly 2% from a closing high on Nov. 18, it has rallied 26% over the past year and some 260% in the past decade.

Vaccine manufacturers are among the areas where retail traders have piled into momentum bets over the past week, with Pfizer Inc. among the most-bought stocks as it capped off the best month in three decades. 

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