Retail investors have been buying up stocks at the fastest pace since 2020 — Citadel

A strategy of buying stocks during market downturns became the go-to choice for retail traders in the first half of 2026: individual investors were snapping up discounted assets at a record pace. This was reported by Scott Rubner, managing director and senior technical strategist at Citadel Securities. He was quoted by Bloomberg.

On days when the S&P 500 index fell, retail investors purchased volumes that were nearly three and a half times higher than the daily average. This activity was the strongest since 2020, when Citadel began tracking this data, and eclipsed the previous record set in 2021 during the “meme stock” boom, according to Bloomberg.

Ma and June broke the records for monthly retail trading activity tracked by Citadel Securities: the nine most active trading days in the company’s history all occurred during this period. Seven of them took place in June. According to Rubner, this month could be the strongest for retail investors in Citadel’s entire history of observations. The highest volume of net purchases in a single day was recorded on June 12, when trading began in Elon Musk’s SpaceX shares following its record-breaking IPO.

"Retail investor participation has evolved from a cyclical phenomenon into a structural feature of modern markets, providing a steady source of demand across the entire U.S. stock market," the strategist said.

Rubner notes that the current surge in retail activity differs from previous periods the company has observed. Unlike in previous years, retail investors are increasingly focusing on sectors that drive the benchmark index, including semiconductors and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

“In June alone, retail traders traded approximately $1.9 billion in semiconductor option premiums daily—six times the historical average— — with about 75% of this activity concentrated in call options (contracts that grant the right to buy an asset at a fixed price in anticipation of rising prices),” the strategist said.

This year, retail investors continued to actively pour money into the stock market even during periods of S&P 500 gains, driving trading volumes to nearly one and a half times the average daily levels. The index itself jumped by about 17% from its March lows, despite uncertainty caused by the war in the Middle East and unclear prospects for interest rates, the agency notes.

On June 17, the U.S. Federal Reserve left its interest rate unchanged, but the board members’ views on the future trajectory were divided: nine forecast at least one rate hike by the end of the year, while another nine expect the rate to remain unchanged or be lowered.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor