Key takeaways:

• Community sentiment towards electric vehicle stocks was bullish, despite large sell-offs 

• Bitcoin-related stocks also resonated with buyers in the Selfwealth community

• Investors also followed the money across topical themes like semiconductors, banks, and China ETFs

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The mood was upbeat for global equities in January, including US shares, where reporting season also provided a positive backdrop for some of the market’s largest names.

Across the course of the month, the S&P 500 gained 1.6%, the Dow Jones rose 1.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite finished the month about 1% higher. Tech stocks were a prominent talking point, the source of major winners, as well as some notable underperformers.

What did Selfwealth members trade in the opening month of the year? Let’s take a look.

US share trading activity

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares were the most traded by trade volumes in January, even though the electric vehicle manufacturer’s share price slumped 24.6%. The catalyst for the sell-off was the company’s quarterly report, which showed the extent that price cuts have had on the auto-maker’s financials. Tesla’s revenue grew just 3% year over year in the final quarter of 2023, while gross profits and operating income nosedived 23% and 47% over the same period.

It was a similar struggle for EV peer Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN), which shed 34.7% of its value last month. While the market remains broadly cautious around names in the EV space, especially in light of Tesla’s report, Selfwealth members didn’t show the same level of risk aversion. In fact, Tesla and Rivian both recorded buy-to-sell ratios above 75% on the Selfwealth platform in January, which means more than three out of every four trades were ‘buys’.

Continuing the above theme, Luminar Technologies (NASDAQ: LAZR) made its second appearance among the most traded US stocks in as many months, ranking 9th in January. The company operates in the light detection and ranging (Lidar) industry, which is a key input for next-gen vehicles. However, with angst in the EV space well and truly in effect, Luminar’s share price was also under pressure. Unlike its siblings above, a slight majority of trades in LAZR last month were ‘sales’.

Bitcoin mining stock CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) was on the outer throughout January, with its share price cratering 27%. Much of that was a reflection of a weaker bitcoin price over the course of the month, but the Selfwealth community didn’t seem perturbed, with the highest conviction rating among any top traded stock at 88%. 

CleanSpark was joined by Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) and Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT), which suggests bullish views towards bitcoin ahead of a rumoured ‘halving’ tipped for April 2024.

Top 20 Stocks by Trades

1. TSLA (Tesla) - 76.5%

2. RIVN (Rivian) - 80.9%

3. NVDA (Nvidia) - 68.7%

4. AAPL (Apple) - 62.8%

5. AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) - 60.8%

6. AMZN (Amazon) - 75.0%

7. MSFT (Microsoft) - 64.9%

8. GOOGL (Alphabet) - 50.0%

9. LAZR (Luminar Technologies) - 49.1%

10. BABA (Alibaba) - 65.4%

11. CLSK (CleanSpark) - 88.0%

12. META (Meta Platforms) - 29.2%

13. PYPL (PayPal) - 62.5%

14. COIN (Coinbase) - 57.1%

15. ZS (Zscaler) - 61.0%

16. MARA (Marathon Digital Holdings) - 85.0%

17. SOFI (SoFi Technologies) - 60.5%

18. DIS (Walt Disney) - 50.0%

19. PLTR (Palantir) - 51.5%

20. HUT (Hut 8) - 58.1%

China was a topical trading theme in the ETF segment last month. It followed fresh economic data out of the world’s second largest economy, which pointed to a patchy post-covid recovery. That meant ETFs like Direxion Daily FTSE China Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: YANG) and Direxion Daily FTSE China Bull 3x Shares (NYSE: YINN) were among the most actively traded funds by trade volumes. While the bear-oriented YANG posted more trades, bulls were out in force displaying their conviction for YINN.

Top 10 ETFs by Trades

• SOXL (Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares) - 54.3%

• SOXS (Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X Shares) - 57.0%

• SQQQ (ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ ETF) - 60.8%

• VOO (Vanguard S&P 500 ETF) - 84.4%

• BOIL (ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas) - 61.9%

• YANG (Direxion Daily FTSE China Bear 3X Shares) - 48.6%

• TMF (Direxion Daily 20+ Year Treasury Bull 3X Shares ETF) - 73.5%

• UVXY (ProShares Ultra VIX Short Term Futures ETF) - 38.2%

• TQQQ (ProShares UltraPro QQQ) - 51.5%

• YINN (Direxion Daily FTSE China Bull 3x Shares) - 73.9%

Money flow in Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) more than doubled over the month prior as the company announced plans to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) efforts by way of new desktop graphics processors and advancements to its AI-related components and software. Not only did the stock set a fresh all-time high, but it also posted a record for the largest monthly increase in market cap ever, surging by almost US$300 billion.

Banks were also back on the watchlists of active traders, with JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), and even the MicroSectors U S Big Banks Index 3X Leveraged ETN (NYSE: BNKU) attracting significant money flow. Reporting season was a prompt for much of this interest, with most banks reporting lower profits on the back of higher deposit rates squeezing interest income, and charges tied to replenishing a deposit insurance fund.

Elsewhere, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) made the top 20 after reporting fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that narrowly beat Wall Street forecasts. One of the highlights of the multinational was sales in the company’s pharmaceutical and medical devices segment, which surged 13.3% thanks to recently acquired cardiovascular medical technology, Abiomed. A post-covid uptick in elective surgeries also fuelled growth across other areas of the business.

Top 20 Stocks Traded by Value

1. NVDA (Nvidia) - 52.3%

2. SOXL (Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares) - 49.9%

3. RIVN (Rivian) - 50.8%

4. SOXS (Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X Shares) - 49.6%

5. TSLA (Tesla) - 58.8%

6. AAPL (Apple) - 50.3%

7. ZS (Zscaler) - 50.6%

8. TNA (Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X ETF) - 50.0%

9. JPM (JPMorgan) - 50.5%

10. BAC (Bank of America) - 50.5%

11. BNKU (MicroSectors U S Big Banks Index 3X Leveraged ETN) - 44.7%

12. AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) - 53.7%

13. YANG (Direxion Daily FTSE China Bear 3X Shares) - 54.3%

14. SQQQ (ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ ETF) - 53.9%

15. GOOGL (Alphabet) - 31.7%

16. SVXY (ProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF) - 40.1%

17. BOIL (ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas) - 59.0%

18. TQQQ (ProShares UltraPro QQQ) - 24.5%

19. QLD (ProShares Ultra QQQ) - 46.0%

20. JNJ (Johnson & Johnson) - 49.7%

Which US shares are the most held?

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) made a move up the list of the most held US shares, rising from 6th place to 5th position in January. The company smashed revenue and earnings estimates last month, delivering revenue growth of 14% to US$170 billion, led by strong holiday and Prime Day sales. But it was the acceleration in growth in the Amazon Web Services division that garnered interest, including commentary regarding new workloads.

Amid the AI frenzy, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) also improved their standing in the Selfwealth community. The duo were the 7th and 12th most popular US shares in the Selfwealth community, up from 8th and 15th in December. The collective value of holdings in these stocks leapt by 39.1% and 26% respectively.

While Nvidia and AMD were cementing themselves as new favourites, former market darling GameStop (NYSE: GME) resumed its descent down the list of the most popular US stocks. On this occasion, the stock ranked 15th on the Selfwealth platform, matching its all-time low ranking from November. Holdings across the community shrunk by almost 20% amid a short-seller driven selloff.

US Shares

1. TSLA (Tesla)

2. AAPL (Apple)

3. MSFT (Microsoft)

4. GOOGL (Alphabet)

5. AMZN (Amazon)

6. RY (Royal Bank of Canada)

7. NVDA (Nvidia)

8. BRK.B (Berkshire Hathaway)

9. META (Meta Platforms)

10. VOO (Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF)

11. BABA (Alibaba)

12. AMD (Advanced Micro Devices)

13. PLTR (Palantir)

14. TQQQ (ProShares UltraPro QQQ)

15. GME (GameStop)

16. QQQ (Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1)

17. PYPL (PayPal)

18. ARKK (ARK Innovation ETF)

19. ENB (Enbridge)

20. VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF)