Per Bloomberg

Retail traders were responsible for 23% of market volume in late January, which topped the previous stock frenzy of 2021. During the previous phase, retail trading only accounted for 22% of total market volume, according to JP Morgan Chase & Co. estimates.

JP Morgan strategist, Peng Cheng, shared in an interview that the retail market share is big because the total trading volume is still lower overall. He also shared how improvements can be seen in trading and crypto.

Peng: “They are encouraged by the recent rebound in small-cap stocks and cryptoassets which crashed last year,”

The news comes at a time when the market has been suffering from a long bearish streak in 2022. Recently, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 reported its best January ever for years.

The Nasdaq especially reported its highest January since 2001, showing a massive 10.7% gain per the Dow Jones Market Data. This comes as the S&P 500 also report positive performance throughout the first month of 2023.

The S&P 500 reportedly grew by a whopping 6.2%, its highest January since 2019. Among some of the companies that did the best were companies like General Motors at 8.4%.

Just recently, Michael Burry, the Big Short investor who caught the financial crash of 2008 and bet against the subprime mortgage, gave a one-word message on what to do. In a simple tweet, he said "sell," and in December, he noted that he wasn't short.

The report shares how despite massive losses of over 50% on certain stocks and assets, individual traders are coming back to crypto-related products and stocks. It also noted that almost $2 trillion had been added to equity values in the first month of the year alone.

The optimism comes as people are expecting the end of the Fed raising interest rates. Companies like Lucid Group Inc. have already risen by 65% specifically during the prior week.

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Bloomberg