Retail traders’ success is thanks to doubling down on two things that have worked: “AI” and “buy the dip”
Main Street bought after weakness at three distinct moments early in the year.
This year, we’ve seen evidence that the increased presence of retail traders is changing how stocks behave around earnings announcements, and even forcing institutional investors to buy what they’re buying.
“2025 is set to be a record year for retail traders,” JPMorgan strategist Arun Jain wrote on the footprint of the retail community, noting that inflows by the cohort are “tracking at ~1.9 times the 5-year average, 50% above the levels seen last year and 12% above the previous peak seen during the retail mania of 2021.”
And for these traders, it’s also been a successful stretch because of a continued willingness to double down on a theme that’s been the biggest driver of market success in recent years (AI) and a tactic that hasn’t yet let them down (buy the dip).
“Retail investors began the year by sizeably buying the dip during three episodes of weakness (Post-DeepSeek correction, Momentum Unwind, and Liberation Day meltdown) — building 75% of their year to date single stock position during Jan-Apr and making Tech, particularly Nvidia and Tesla, clear winners of this trend,” he wrote.
(Side note: poor Apple!)
For years, retail has been building an increasingly de facto “overweight AI, underweight everything else” position.
“In fact, retail investors have proved their conviction in the AI theme by funding large purchases in AI30/Mag 7 with holdings in the SPX 470,” Jain added. “This bifurcation has been persistent since 2023 following the launch of ChatGPT.”
Since the release of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, the maximum number of days between fresh highs in the S&P 500 has been 128 sessions (or a little over six months), a milestone-free dry spell that ran from February 19 to June 27 of this year. During that period and thereafter, AI-geared stocks have played a key role in fueling the market’s gains.
As such, buying the dip — and doing so across AI stocks in particular — has been an extremely potent combination.
