Retail traders are starting off 2026 with another AI shopping spree

It’s a new year, and retail traders have an appetite for the same main course.

“Retail investors quickly refocused their attention to their trading portfolios as the New Year began, leading to the second-highest weekly buying levels in nearly eight months and daily purchases consistently exceeding the 85th percentile [relative to its one-year average] since January 2,” JPMorgan strategist Arun Jain wrote.

While retail investors continued to buy into ETFs over individual equities overall, so far in 2026, most of traders’ single-stock money is going into names retail investors took a shining to in 2025: the AI beneficiaries.

Per Jain, Tesla, Nvidia, Amazon, Palantir Technologies, Advanced Micro Devices, and Micron are the most purchased stocks by retail so far this year. The cohort has also made some big purchases of Halliburton and Chevron after the US ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“After earning more than $20 billion in options on our platform over the course of the year, retail investors enter January armed with capital to deploy,” added Scott Rubner, Citadel Securities’ head of equity derivatives strategy. “This demand remains a steady source of upside pressure, amplifying early-year flows and contributing to January momentum.”