LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / April 27, 2022 / to a new report published by trading and investing platform Capital.com, global retail client participation in commodities across the platform climbed by 85% in the first three months of the year. According to the report, commodities had the biggest influx of trades in the first two weeks after the invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February. Over the same period, DIY investors showed significant interest in higher-risk tech stocks with the Nasdaq emerging as the number one most-traded market among investors.
Trading volume across all assets climbed to a new record despite the climate of heightened risk, up by 33% from the previous three months. These findings suggest that retail investors responded nimbly to world events in the first quarter of 2022.
Capital.com Chief Analyst, David Jones comments:
"The data from our research shows that DIY investors generally oscillated between ‘buying the dip' in tech stocks, chasing momentum in energy markets or seeking refuge in gold and dollars in Q1. Investors and traders came into 2022 concerned about the implication that higher inflation would have on world markets. But those worries took a back seat in February following the Russian invasion, and attention switched to chasing the momentum in commodity markets such as oil - and mitigating the broader market risk by buying gold."
The insights were released in Capital.com's proprietary report - Pulse - which captures global trading patterns across 6,000 instruments. The Q1 2022 Pulse report tracked the retail trading behaviour of platform users between 1 Jan 2021 to 31 March 2022. Capital.com has over 4 million platform users across the world.
The Pulse report further revealed that so-called meme stocks such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment were less attractive to retail investors in the first quarter of 2022. By contrast, companies with a stronger focus on Cloud-based technology activity and software - such as Autodesk, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Matterport, Cloudflare, Roblox, Shopify and Unity Technologies - drew considerable interest. Investor participation in these tech stocks rose 26% over the quarter.
"Markets were largely down in January, and tech was the big casualty amid bubble fears and stocks wildly detached from price/earnings ratios. The plunge accelerated following the Russian invasion - at its worst in mid March the Nasdaq 100 was down 20% for the year to date. But that trend ended. The last two weeks of March saw a significant recovery, and today we see Nasdaq stocks back at January's levels.The question our traders may be asking for the next quarter is: Could this be merely the ‘dead cat bounce'?" said Jones.
Key insights drawn from the Pulse report in Q1 2022:
- Retail traders across all Capital.com group entities, with clients located around the world, have surged into commodities since the start of the year, with a major spike in activity as Russia invaded Ukraine.
- The top-three commodities traded were oil, gold and natural gas.
- The number of commodity traders on Capital.com increased by 66% from December 2021 to March 2022.
- Trades in crude oil alone jumped 174% in the last quarter.
- Traders have shown increased interest in stocks and shares, particularly those of tech companies.
- The Nasdaq 100 index was the most traded market of the last quarter, followed by US crude oil.
- Matterport saw the biggest gain in the number of traders last quarter, at 752%.
For additional transaction and volume data, you can view the complete Pulse report here
Media Contacts
Shamillia Sivathambu
PR for Capital.com
[email protected]
+44 7900 016 469
Notes to Editors
About Capital.com
Capital.com is a high-growth investment trading group of companies empowering people to participate in financial markets through secure, low-friction, innovative platforms that take the complexity out of investing. Its intuitive award-winning platform, available on web and app, offers investors a seamless trading experience to over 6,000 world-renowned markets. To help investors trade with confidence, the platform is enabled with robust risk management controls and transparent pricing while its all-in-one Investmate app delivers extensive financial lessons and educational content to support clients in their investment journey.
Capital.com has clients in over 180 countries with offices located in the UK, Gibraltar, Singapore, Australia, and Cyprus. In 2021, the platform reported a 350 per cent growth in its client base, making it one of Europe's fastest growing investment trading platforms with more than 4 million registered users.
Capital Com (UK) Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under registration number 793714. Capital Com SV Investments Limited is Authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), under license number 319/17. Capital Com Australia Limited is authorised and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) under AFSL Number 513393.
To find out more, please visit: www.capital.com
SOURCE: Capital.com