Retail investors are still crowding into the market, just not in the old buy-everything way.
VandaTrack data shows retail trading activity near record highs, while net buying — the gap between what retail investors buy and what they sell — has fallen to its weakest pace since the COVID era. It’s a sign that retail money is rotating quickly between trades instead of lifting the whole market.
That might look strange at first. Stocks are near records, AI remains the market’s dominant obsession, and retail traders are still showing up everywhere from SpaceX (SPCX) to crypto ETFs.
But the broad retail bid has faded. VandaTrack data shows one-month rolling net buying down to $13 billion across stocks and ETFs, while single-stock net buying has dropped to just $3.2 billion. Both were at much loftier levels in 2025 and earlier this year.
The twist is that retail hasn’t gone quiet. It’s gotten busier.
Total retail turnover — buys plus sells — is at record highs and sits in the 99.7th percentile of its 2012-2026 history, according to VandaTrack. In plain English, retail traders are buying plenty. They are simply selling almost as much.
That turns the 2026 retail trade into something closer to musical chairs. The money is moving, but it is not staying put for long.
“Retail [investors] simply aren’t expressing one broad market view anymore,” VandaTrack wrote. “They’re expressing dozens of thematic views underneath the surface.”
Retail has already taken a lap through energy stocks and ETFs, silver, software, semiconductors like Micron (MU) and Marvell (MRVL), crypto ETFs, and SpaceX.
The old retail cycle was buy the dip, buy the meme, buy the “Magnificent Seven,” buy the market. The new one is faster, more fragmented, and more narrative-driven.
VandaTrack’s working theory is that speculative capital now has more places to go. Crypto, prediction markets, sports betting, the Hyperliquid exchange, private-market themes, and options are all competing for the same marginal dollar that once might have chased the next meme stock.
This does not make low retail positioning a sell signal. If anything, VandaTrack argues crowded positioning creates vulnerability, while light positioning does not.
The better question is which chair they are racing toward next.
As VandaTrack put it, “If 2026 has taught us anything, it’s that understanding what retail are buying has become far more valuable than simply knowing whether retail is buying.”
Jared Blikre is the global markets and data editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @SPYJared or email him at jaredblikre@yahooinc.com.
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