Key takeaways:

• The strength of the Nasdaq rally in November encouraged investors to ramp up their bets in a number of high-profile, and under-the-radar tech companies

—

It was one of the best months for US markets on record, with indices surging on encouraging inflation data, and dovish commentary from the Federal Reserve suggesting the world’s most powerful central bank may have reached the peak of its rate hike cycle.

With tech stocks gaining the most support from the market, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite chalked up a 10.7% gain for the month. Not far behind, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones charged higher by 8.9% and 8.8% respectively.

What did the rally mean for investors? Here is a round-up of all the action from the Selfwealth community.

US share trading activity

Leading a long list of familiar names, many of them being tech favourites well-known to our community, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) was the most traded US stock in November. Just over two-thirds of all trades in the chip-maker were buy orders, which coincided with a near 15% gain for the stock. A flagbearer for the AI segment, Nvidia’s market cap was comfortably back above US$1 trillion by the month’s end.

An unfamiliar name making its first appearance among the top 20 most popular names was VinFast Auto (NASDAQ: VFS). The Vietnam-based auto-maker, which only listed on the Nasdaq back in August, is another contender in the hotly contested electric vehicle space. However, the small-time EV challenger received the backing of one well-known US investment bank, bringing attention to the company just as it plans to enter as many as 50 new target markets by the end of 2024.

Also gaining traction in the community was SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI). A slight majority of all trades in the financial services firm were buy orders, despite the stock inching backwards last month. SOFI shares have whipsawed over recent months, but buyers may be looking to prominent investor Cathie Wood for confidence, who continues to buy shares in the business. 

With Bitcoin reclaiming a price of US$40,000 for the first time since April 2022, investors were buying into Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN). The crypto exchange platform tends to trade in lockstep with the Bitcoin price, and with buyers responsible for more than 70% of all trades in COIN last month, it would appear that many COIN backers see crypto markets trending higher yet.

Top 20 US Stocks by Trades

1. Nvidia (NVDA) - 67.8% Buy-Sell Ratio

2. Tesla (TSLA) - 69.0% Buy-Sell Ratio

3. Apple (AAPL) - 50.6% Buy-Sell Ratio

4. Rivian (RIVN) - 72.5% Buy-Sell Ratio

5. Amazon (AMZN) - 55.5% Buy-Sell Ratio

6. Microsoft (MSFT) - 59.5% Buy-Sell Ratio

7. Alphabet (GOOG) - 56.8% Buy-Sell Ratio

8. PayPal (PYPL) - 66.1% Buy-Sell Ratio

9. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) - 43.3% Buy-Sell Ratio

10. GameStop (GME) - 43.1% Buy-Sell Ratio

11. Meta Platforms (META) - 32.7% Buy-Sell Ratio

12. Bank of America (BAC) - 60.4% Buy-Sell Ratio

13. Palantir (PLTR) - 35.4% Buy-Sell Ratio

14. Alibaba (BABA) - 56.8% Buy-Sell Ratio

15. VinFast Auto (VFS) - 54.5% Buy-Sell Ratio

16. Walt Disney (DIS) - 45.2% Buy-Sell Ratio

17. Carvana (CVNA) - 48.8% Buy-Sell Ratio

18. SoFi Technologies (SOFI) - 59.0% Buy-Sell Ratio

19. Zscaler (ZS) - 51.3% Buy-Sell Ratio

20. Coinbase Global (COIN) - 71.1% Buy-Sell Ratio

In terms of ETFs, the greatest conviction was in funds that would correspond with an end to the recent market rally. More specifically, the ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (NYSE: UVXY) earns returns for investors when market volatility increases, while the ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ ETF (NYSE: SQQQ) rises when the market falls. For both of these funds, buying represented more than 60% of all trades, demonstrating some buyers are positioning for a market pull-back.

Top 10 ETFs by Trades

1. ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ ETF (SQQQ) - 60.7% Buy-Sell Ratio

2. ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ) - 46.6% Buy-Sell Ratio

3. Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X Shares (SOXS) - 55.3% Buy-Sell Ratio

4. Bank of Montreal MicroSectors FANG Index 3X Inverse Leveraged ETN (FNGD) - 47.1% Buy-Sell Ratio

5. ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (UVXY) - 62.3% Buy-Sell Ratio

6. Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (QQQ) - 55.8% Buy-Sell Ratio

7. Bank of Montreal MicroSectors FANG Index 3X Leveraged ETN (FNGU) - 44.2% Buy-Sell Ratio

8. Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF (VOO) - 55.8% Buy-Sell Ratio

9. ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas (BOIL) - 48.7% Buy-Sell Ratio

10. Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (SOXL) - 44.4% Buy-Sell Ratio

When looking at money flow across US stocks, there were a few other names that found themselves on investors’ radars.

Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) was the 11th most traded stock by value last month. Shares in the cloud security company soared nearly 25% in November, with much of that occurring before the company’s earnings report at the end of the month. Widespread enthusiasm for tech stocks played a central role in attracting significant money into ZS, albeit much of the interest was short-term trading.

Shares in United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL) leapt higher by nearly 15%, and a small cohort of shareholders were keen to place the airline at the centre of their trading convictions. By the end of the month, UAL was the 17th most traded US stock by value on the Selfwealth platform. 

And another under-the-radar name featuring among the top 20 was Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU), which recorded the 19th largest flow of capital among all US stocks last month. Like many of its peers, the software firm was helped by broad-based community attentiveness in light of the Nasdaq’s strong showing.

Top 20 Stocks Traded by Value

1. Nvidia (NVDA) - 50.3% Buy-Sell Ratio

2. Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X Shares (SOXS) - 50.3% Buy-Sell Ratio

3. Apple (AAPL) - 48.6% Buy-Sell Ratio

4. Bank of Montreal MicroSectors FANG Index 3X Leveraged (FNGU) - 49.5% Buy-Sell Ratio

5. Bank of Montreal MicroSectors FANG Index 3X Inverse Leveraged ETN (FNGD) - 49.2% Buy-Sell Ratio

6. Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (SOXL) - 49.2% Buy-Sell Ratio

7. Rivian (RIVN) - 50.4% Buy-Sell Ratio

8. Amazon (AMZN) - 48.7% Buy-Sell Ratio

9. Tesla (TSLA) - 53.1% Buy-Sell Ratio

10. Bank of America (BAC) - 49.6% Buy-Sell Ratio

11. Zscaler (ZS) - 50.1% Buy-Sell Ratio

12. Alphabet (GOOG) - 50.2% Buy-Sell Ratio

13. ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ) - 49.4% Buy-Sell Ratio

14. PayPal (PYPL) - 50.9% Buy-Sell Ratio

15. Carvana (CVNA) - 49.5% Buy-Sell Ratio

16. ProShares UltraPro Russell2000 (URTY) - 50.2% Buy-Sell Ratio

17. United Airlines (UAL) - 50.0% Buy-Sell Ratio

18. Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (QQQ) - 57.3% Buy-Sell Ratio

19. Intuit (INTU) - 49.9% Buy-Sell Ratio

20. GameStop (GME) - 57.4% Buy-Sell Ratio

Which US shares are the most held?

While Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares surged nearly 20% last month, the total value of TSLA holdings across the Selfwealth community shrunk by 10.9% across the same period. The stock still sits comfortably ahead of its peers, with holdings nearly three times the value of next-placed Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), however, it looks like a small number of investors with sizable holdings took some profits and cut their exposure to the EV auto-maker.

Meanwhile, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) moved two spots higher into seventh place among the most held stocks on the Selfwealth trading platform. The investment conglomerate remains a favourite among investors with a long-term investment outlook, as evidenced by the fact a relatively modest level of buying support and a moderate share price gain underpinned its ranking improvement last month.

Tech pair Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) and Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) moved in the opposite direction, with the former down two spots, and the latter down one spot, into positions nine and eleven respectively. 

While profit taking was attributable to Meta’s slide, with the underlying stock actually rising almost 9% last month, it was a different story for Alibaba. The Chinese e-commerce giant set a new 52-week low after the company announced a u-turn on plans to spin out its cloud division. That reversal was due to concerns about tougher export restrictions on chip technology by the United States. Alibaba shares shed nearly 10% in November, while community holdings decreased 17.6%.

Last but not least, GameStop (NYSE: GME) slipped another place in the popularity stakes to a new community-low ranking of 15th. After GME shares set a three-year low, the stock bounced higher in the final days of the month as a year-to-date high for the S&P 500 encouraged a fresh wave of speculation.

Most Held US Stocks

1. Tesla (TSLA)

2. Apple (AAPL)

3. Microsoft (MSFT)

4. Alphabet (GOOG)

5. Amazon (AMZN)

6. Royal Bank of Canada (RY)

7. Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B)

8. Nvidia (NVDA)

9. Meta Platforms (META)

10. Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF (VOO)

11. Alibaba (BABA)

12. Direxion Daily 20+ Year Treasury Bull 3X Shares ETF (TMF)

13. Palantir (PLTR)

14. ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ)

15. GameStop (GME)

16. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

17. ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK)

18. Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (QQQ)

19. PayPal (PYPL)

20. Enbridge (ENB)