Who says investors are cooling their heels on S&P 500 stocks in 2024? They're still playing hot potato with a handful of high-interest stocks.
Traders put in 40,000 or more gross orders for 10 stocks — including Tesla, Nvidia and Marathon Digital — in just the past five business days on the Interactive Brokers trading site. And orders for these stocks are piling in despite the stocks' volatility. Seven of the 10 highly traded stocks are down on the year.
"So much for a post-Santa slump — Interactive Brokers (IBKR) customers were solid net buyers of stocks over the past five sessions," said Steve Sosnick, Interactive Brokers' chief strategist.
Ignoring The Masses
These active traders seem to be blowing off any concerns harbored by mainstream investors.
Take Tesla. The company's CEO, Elon Musk, is under pressure from a Wall Street Journal report suggesting he's partaking in many illegal drugs. Musk has disputed the report on social media. And yet, shares of Tesla are down more than 5% this year.
But no matter. Interactive Brokers' clients entered 198,583 orders on the stock, with 11,933 more orders on the buy side. "The continued buying in TSLA shows that the faithful seem unperturbed by reports of Elon Musk's conduct, and buying in NVDA and Advanced Micro Devices shows that enthusiasm for AI remains undimmed," Sosnick said.
As evidence, buying orders in Nvidia and AMD continue to outstrip sell orders despite the shares running up so much following big 2023 gains. Nvidia and AMD shares have risen an additional 7.3% and 1.3% this year, respectively.
Split On Bitcoin Stocks
Interactive Brokers clients keep loading up on bitcoin stocks like Marathon Digital and Coinbase, too. There's been 6,339 and 4,782 net buying orders on the two stocks respectively this year.
And yet, the two stocks aren't slam dunks when it comes to returns. Yes, Marathon shares are up 9.5% this year. But shares of Coinbase are off 12.6%.
"The bitcoin ETF story continues to resonate, with MARA in third place and COIN in seventh, both with solid net buying. Let's see if those numbers are echoed if (or when) the (bitcoin spot price) ETFs begin trading," Sosnick said.
Top Net Stock Orders
On Interactive Brokers in past five business days
| Stock | Symbol | Gross stocks | Net stocks | YTD change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla | 198,583 | 11,933 | -5.4% | |
| NVIDIA | 144,516 | 4,584 | 7.3% | |
| Marathon Digital | 94,477 | 6,339 | 9.5% | |
| Advanced Micro Devices | 84,002 | 5,860 | 1.3% | |
| Apple | 76,128 | 18,572 | -3.8% | |
| Coinbase Global | 59,898 | 4,782 | -12.6% | |
| ProShares UltraPro QQQ | 50,435 | 5,723 | -3.2% | |
| Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares | 49,073 | 12,027 | -9.5% | |
| Invesco QQQ Trust | 47,223 | 8,577 | -0.9% | |
| SPDR S&P 500 ETF | 43,209 | 3,987 | -0.3% |
