TD Ameritrade Clients Bought Tesla, Nio, And DraftKings Ahead Of The Election

In keeping with the general uncertainty ahead of the presidential election, TD Ameritrade clients did not significantly increase or decrease their market exposure in October, according to data from the firm. 

The company’s Investor Movement Index, a measure of client activity pulled from a sample of accounts that have made a trade in the last month, declined slightly in October, falling 0.35% from September. A rising IMX indicates clients were net buyers of equities, while a falling IMX indicates the opposite. 

Despite the slight decrease from September to October, it’s worth noting that the index is still up 45% from April, indicating that investors have heavily increased their exposure to stocks over the past six months. 

“I consider this basically unchanged,” said TD Ameritrade Chief Market Strategist JJ Kinahan. 

Kinahan said the relatively small change was likely tied to the election. Some investors, he said, wanted to see the result before making any investment or trading decisions, particularly as it related to the likelihood of a tax increase. 

“What it comes down to is what you saw on the vote,” Kinahan said. “People were so divided that they weren’t sure which way to go. My sense is you did see people take profits and instead of reinvesting the money, people waited to see what was going to happen.”

Some of the stocks that were most commonly bought by the firm’s clients during the month include familiar names like Apple Inc. AAPL, Tesla Inc. TSLA, and NIO Inc. NIO. DraftKings Inc. DKNG was also a popular buy. 

Stocks that were net sold by clients include Moderna Inc. MRNA, Micron Inc. MU, Beyond Meat Inc. BYND, and MGM Resorts International MGM. 

“Apple and Tesla are not unexpected. Nio is people taking a shot, let’s be honest, and DraftKings is even more speculative. I think DraftKings was related to the fact that college football conferences like the Big Ten and PAC-12 came back.”