During the recent stock market volatility, most investors — more than 90% according to Vanguard — are staying the course with their money. However, about 8% of U.S. households have been active, making at least one trade between Feb. 19 and March 20, Vanguard found.
“Of the 22 trading days during that time, 16 were among the highest U.S. household trading days since we began tracking in 2011, a period that includes more than 2,000 trading days,” the paper stated.
And most those households, about seven in 10, moved money into equities rather than fixed income, Vanguard found. That said, affluent clients have moved into fixed income, which has had a modest positive net inflow. The paper noted that “This suggests that older and/or wealthier clients are more likely … to sell into stock declines while the typical household “buys on the dips.”
Also, the activity of households that traded between those dates was double the amount over the same time period in previous years. And the proportion of all U.S. household assets that traded was 4.8%, also double the amount over the same time in previous years.