Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as the opening bell rings on November 4, 2026 in New York City.
Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty Images
Amid Thursday’s massive tech stock selloff, retail traders sold the most stocks in a single day since the coronavirus pandemic, according to Vanda Research.
Retail investors sold $338 million in individual stocks on Thursday, less than an hour before the close. The market research firm said this was the biggest single-day outflow since March 2020 for a group known for buying on the spurts and keeping cash in the market.
The selloff comes amid a steep decline in the stock market as traders move away from technology. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,800 points, essentially erasing its gains since the midterm, while the Nasdaq Composite Index entered a correction phase.
“In a typical downturn, retailers buy on the spur of the moment,” the company’s memo said. “Now that bid has effectively disappeared from the individual’s name.”
The firm noted that the remaining buying was concentrated in leveraged stocks such as ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ), which outperforms the Nasdaq 100 by three times, and Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3x Stock (SOXL), which is said to track trends in semiconductors.
“This appears to be a rare buyer’s strike that conflicts with a forced sale,” the memo said.
— CNBC’s Nick Wells contributed to this article.
(Correction: Corrected the days of the week in the first paragraph.)
