TD Ameritrade's IMX Declines: Equity Market Exposure Decreased, Net Buying Favored Tech

TD Ameritrade released Investor Movement Index IMX sentiment data for April 2014, trending down for the first time in seven months.

In April, the IMX declined to 5.67 while remaining at the high end of the historical range. The report stated, "TD Ameritrade clients were net buyers overall. Net buying activity favored the technology and services sectors, while the consumer goods and basic materials sectors saw net selling. Clients were also net buyers of fixed-income products, including fixed-income ETFs and mutual funds."

Equity market exposure declined in April, where portfolio compositions were less volatile relative to the S&P 500. The report noted that this lowered sensitivity to the equity markets, therefore driving down the IMX.

Net buying favored the technology sector, with purchases in Facebook FB, Google GOOG and Yahoo YHOO. The service sector saw popular buys of Amazon.com AMZN and The Walt Disney Company DIS. Other popular trading names in April included Gilead Sciences GILD, Whole Foods Market WFM and Verizon Communications VZ.

Following recent stock gains, investors engaged in profit taking of Cisco Systems CSCO, Intel INTC, Oracle ORCL, Alcoa AA, ExxonMobil XOM and Chesapeake Energy CHK. Other popular names sold include Caterpillar CAT, American Airlines Group AAL and Altria Group MO, according to the report.

The Investor Movement Index (IMX) is a sentiment based index created by TD Ameritrade to reflect how retail investors are positioned in the markets. TD Ameritrade uses data from a sample of its six million funded client accounts to create an individual score issued monthly.