Article produced 11 February 2025.  

Key takeaways: 

• Trade volumes in semiconductor stocks increased markedly in response to the emergence of DeepSeek. 

• The total value of TSLA shares traded jumped nearly five-fold over the month. 

• Among the most held stocks on the platform, Microsoft dropped to its lowest ranking since June 2021. 

• It is important to always do your own research before making decisions to invest. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance.  

Despite bouts of volatility, the US stock market continued its ascent through January, with each of the major indices posting strong gains. 

The Dow Jones was the best performing index, up 4.7%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite — both proving somewhat susceptible to volatility arising from revelations about DeepSeek’s rapid growth — recorded gains of 2.7% and 1.6% respectively. 

With the above in mind, the tech sector largely turned out to be a focal point for investors through the month, with investors paying scrutiny to valuations for shares with AI exposure. 

Selfwealth investors responded in kind, with the following representing an overview of last month’s major trading trends across the community. 

US share trading activity 

 As the release of DeepSeek made a splash around the world, investors focused on the chip sector in detail last month. The free, open-source large language model was reportedly developed inside two months at a fraction of the cost of competitors using older-generation chips, which brought the focus back to major tech players at the centre of the AI trade. 

Trades in semiconductor giant Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) jumped 44% over the month, but more than three quarters of said trades in the Selfwealth community were ‘buys’. That coincided with a double-digit slump in the company’s share price through January, including a near 17% drop considering the DeepSeek news, equivalent to US$600 billion in market cap, and the largest daily loss for a company in history. 

However, Nvidia wasn’t alone amid suggestions that higher-spec chips might be less critical for AI development. Investors paid greater attention to other semiconductor peers like Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) and ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML), which ranked seventh and 20th for trade volumes, albeit with two of the highest levels of buying conviction for any names in the top 20. 

On the other hand, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) recorded weak buying sentiment in January, posting its second consecutive buy-to-sell ratio below 50%. By way of context, for most of last year, MSFT achieved a buy-to-sell ratio above 60%, including various months above 70%. The shift over the last two months suggests community sentiment may have somewhat ‘cooled’ towards the tech giant, at least with respect to other opportunities in the AI space. 

A resurgent Bitcoin market offered support for Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT), which finished the month as the 10th most traded US stock. A slight majority of overall trades favoured buying activity, which has been a consistent theme during months where the price of Bitcoin rallied. What’s more, overall trade volumes in the Bitcoin mining stock rose 33% month-over-month. 

In the lead-up to its quarterly earnings, SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI) attracted a surge in trading interest, landing in 15th spot, having been outside the top 20 a month prior. With a buy-to-sell ratio of 78.2%, investors were largely bullish in their views towards the stock, which follows a series of results where the fintech announced strong revenue growth metrics.  

Another stock making a strong impression within the community was Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO), which despite being a US$1 trillion-plus business, has often remained under the radar among Selfwealth investors.  

Nonetheless, in 18th spot last month, and with nearly two-thirds of all trades being ‘buys’, some investors on the platform took a clear liking to the networking and semiconductor business. During the month, Broadcom received a price target upgrade from Barclays, with the broker lifting its target from US$205 to US$260 per share. The company’s fabrication partner, TSMC, also reported earnings that were ahead of Wall Street forecasts, spurring hope for AVGO’s semiconductor operations. 

Several familiar ETF names were among the most actively traded US-listed funds in January, including those with exposure to themes like semiconductors and cryptocurrency. 

One notable exception, and a first-time entrant on the list was the YieldMax MSTR Option Income Strategy ETF (NYSE: MSTY), which also recorded the highest buying conviction of any fund at 94.1%. 

However, courtesy of its indirect exposure to cryptocurrency, MSTY, which seeks to generate monthly income by selling/writing call options on the individual security MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), the fund proved popular as the price of Bitcoin rallied nearly 13% through the month.  

The total value of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares traded on the platform in January jumped nearly five-fold over the month, ensuring that the electric vehicle manufacturer was the most traded name by money flow. Trading activity was split right down the middle in terms of buying and selling, which also coincided with a steady share price performance through the month.  

However, recent attention towards the stock has centred on the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, with shareholders raising questions as to how he splits his time between Tesla and his role with the US Department of Government Efficiency. At the same time, Tesla also reported an 8% drop in revenue over the year, with full-year deliveries also lower against the prior corresponding period. 

Amid the rise of Ozempic, which has prompted a growing focus on weight loss treatments in the health space, Hims & Hers Health (NYSE: HIMS) found itself garnering interest through January. In seventh spot, Selfwealth investors directed notable capital into and out of the telemedicine stock, which is pushing a growing lineup of weight loss treatments. Shares in HIMS jumped 54% last month, and in the process, set an all-time high. 

A drastic one-day plunge in the share prices of Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) and IONQ (NYSE: IONQ), which both plummeted around 40%, saw trade values ramp up in the quantum computing stocks, which ultimately finished inside the top 10 last month.  

The sharp declines directly followed comments from industry stalwart and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who downplayed the near-term role of quantum computing and told Wall Street analysts that “very useful quantum computers” are likely to be 20 years away from reality. 

Tesla wasn’t the only car company in the spotlight and drawing heightened money flow last month, with General Motors (NYSE: GM) the 15th most traded security by value. That may have had something to do with the spike in volume following the company’s quarterly report, when it delivered its worst single-day session since March 2020.  

One of the hurdles for the stock last month was uncertainty tied to trade tariffs for Canada and Mexico — both part of the US automotive supply chain — and reduced government support for electric vehicles in the US. 

Which US shares are the most held? 

Although Tesla and Nvidia remain well out in front of the rest of the field, Google parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) managed to surpass Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to finish the month as the third most popular US holding on the Selfwealth platform. 

While the total value of all GOOGL holdings increased by 7.7% over the month, it was a different story for Apple, where community holdings in the electronics manufacturer declined by 6.5%. Both results were broadly in line with the commensurate share price performances for each stock, albeit the ensuing result meant Apple was ranked at its lowest level since June 2024. 

Since Alphabet released details about its upcoming ‘Willow’ quantum computing processor chip, the stock surged over 16% through to the end of January. 

Meanwhile, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) eclipsed Microsoft, taking fifth spot, and with the latter ranked sixth at the end of the month, that was the lowest placement for MSFT since June 2021.  

While Amazon shares found favour across the market, the emergence of China’s DeepSeek artificial intelligence model disrupted some momentum for Microsoft. As it were, Microsoft then followed up said news with a quarterly report showing the company’s slowest revenue growth since 2023, including moderating growth across its Azure and cloud services division. Based on money flow, two-thirds of capital traded in MSFT last month was selling activity. 

With Bitcoin prices rebounding through the month, there was a favourable tailwind for names like MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) and the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (NASDAQ: IBIT), with the duo gaining one and two spots respectively to entrench their positions in the top 20. 

Elsewhere, Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) jumped one spot to finish the month as the 12th most held US stock by value, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) rejoined the top 20 after a three-month absence. 

Shares in BABA rose nearly 17% last month, with the company also in the news following the publicity surrounding DeepSeek. Late in the month, Alibaba unveiled a new version of its Qwen 2.5 AI model, citing outperformance compared with DeepSeek, GPT, and Llama AI models. 

It is important to always do your own research before making decisions to invest. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance. 

That’s all for this Trade Trends report, stay tuned for the next edition this time next month!