- Data from investment platform AJ Bell reveals how DIY retail investors are responding following ‘Liberation Day’ tariff announcements
- Trading activity around double normal levels on Friday and Monday as investors move to protect and reposition portfolios
- Customers buying investments outnumber sellers two to one in the days following Trump’s reforms as people spot buying opportunities following the global sell-off
Charlie Musson, managing director of AJ Bell’s investment platform for DIY investors, comments:
“Current market volatility has caught the attention of DIY investors, with significantly higher than usual trading activity in recent days as customers use the flexibility of our platform to protect and reposition their portfolios.
“On Friday and Monday we saw significant increases in the volume of money traded via the platform. Some of this will be customers selling down positions and holding cash while they wait to see how far the global sell-off goes.
“However, interestingly, buy trades were double the volume of sell trades so a bigger proportion of customers are seeing this as a buying opportunity and are repositioning their portfolios towards investments they feel are safer or have been hardest hit, in the expectation of a recovery in the months and years ahead.
“We’ve also just been through the tax year end meaning lots of customers have topped up their ISAs and pensions to use any allowances they had remaining last year and the new allowances that have become available this tax year. Many of these customers are viewing the falls we have seen in share prices as a good time to enter the market.
“How people respond will ultimately depend on their own personal circumstances. In most cases investors that have been here before and have a long-term investment outlook are prepared to keep investing as they normally would, recognising that even sharp falls in the stock market tend to look like no more than a bump in the road once they’re in the rear-view mirror in few years’ time.”