Retail investors extend 23-month buying streak as equity appetite strengthens

Retail investors are making a strong bet on stocks, as retail buying has become a major force on the market. Individual investors achieved 23 months of net buying for stocks, the longest streak since the period between 2020 and 2022. 

For the past 23 months, retail investors have made net stock purchases. This is the longest net buying streak since the 2020-2023 period. Retail has flowed into stocks in search of an offset to inflation among actively growing assets. 

Retail buying also extended the trend of meme investing, as Cryptopolitan reported. Previously, retail has achieved 32 months of straight buying. 

Retail has been buying ETFs for 158 straight days as well. Individual buyers are also quick to react to shifting conditions, causing some of the biggest rallies in 2025. The shift in retail behavior also coincided with the rise of AI companies. The perfect mix of a bull market and investors who prefer actively-managed portfolios created new rules for the stock market. 

Did retail investors abandon crypto? 

The shift to stock trading was one of the reasons for the outflow of retail investors from crypto. While BTC was seen as a potential store of value, it also acted as a risk-on asset. BTC and crypto more often behaved as a riskier version of NASDAQ. 

As a result, some retail investors switched to the stock market. In 2025, NASDAQ was already up a net 20%, while BTC was down a net 5.3% following a rapid correction. The significant upside of NASDAQ, with a lower risk of crashes, brought over some investors from crypto to stocks. 

In the short term, BTC and NASDAQ can have disparate performance. For November, BTC posted bigger gains compared to the index, but could not compensate for previous losses. 

At the same time, crypto trading has become the provenance of whales, with limited new inflows. Even crypto natives have attempted to trade stocks via tokenized assets. The rise of a global middle class with spare resources increased demand for US equities, with traders seeking ways to invest abroad. 

Robinhood was also one of the hubs for retail activity, with trading fees from equities rising by 132% in Q3. 

Individual traders are a permanent presence

Individual retail traders are becoming a permanent presence, instead of sporadic players on the market. A wider number of traders are also participating in options markets, betting on a bullish development with call options exceeding put options. 

Retail investors have emerged as dip buyers, while larger funds sold stocks. US-based traders set new records for buying. In the EU, the trend was also notable, with a rise in share buying for Q3. For that period, over 780K new European investors bought shares, up 18% compared to the same period in 2024. 

Retail investors are also showing some signs of caution and cooling, while still accumulating selected shares. The market is now poised between cautious optimism, and warnings on the potential of forming an AI bubble.

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