Here Are The Brands Investors Were Buying And Selling In December

It can be incredibly useful to see how others are approaching the market. And while you can get a good gauge on sentiment based on price, it's harder to see what stocks people are flowing in and out of. 

That's the goal of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.'s AMTD Investor Movement Index, or IMX. The index tracks the activity of TD Ameritrade investors to measures how they are positioned in the markets.

The IMX data for December showed that investors continued to be in a buying mood, even as overall the index fell less than one percent to finish the year at 5.48. This occurred despite a slight rise in implied volatility leading up to the Federal Reserve meeting in the middle of the month as well as decreased volatility in widely held brands like Apple Inc. AAPL and General Electric Company GE.

The Bought

Nevertheless, investors were eager to buy, as the big gainers in December turned out to be the better performing stocks of 2016, with both Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and NVIDIA Corporation NVDA netting buyers last month. Facebook Inc FB also garnered some additional attention at the end of 2016, as investors increased sought to increase their exposure in the social media company despite negative press surrounding it.

The Sold

Among the brands being sold were Alcoa Corporation AA and Ford Motor CompanyF, which both paid out dividends in December. The financial and oil sectors also experienced a sell-off to finish 2016. Wells Fargo & Co WFC and Citigroup Inc C were net sold as each reached new year-to-date highs and investors unloaded ConocoPhillips COP and Chevron Corporation CVX as their prices normalized with the rise in the price of oil.

Click here to see a full rundown of TD Ameritrade's December IMX data.