TD Ameritrade Index Indicates Retail Investors Are At Their Most Bullish Point Yet

According to one index, non-institutional investors have more exposure to the stock market than at any point since 2010.

The Investor Movement Index, a monthly index created by TD Ameritrade to track sentiment among its clients, increased to 8.59 in December, an all-time high for the 8-year-old index.

The IMX looks at holdings, trading activity, and other data from TD Ameritrade investors to determine whether they are increasing or decreasing their exposure. The move higher from November to December indicates retail investor sentiment got more bullish and increased their overall exposure heading into 2018.

Most Popular Buys

As was the case for most of 2017, the majority of the most bought stocks among TD Ameritrade clients in December were technology stocks. This includes Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, NVIDIA Inc. NVDA, and Micron Technology Inc. MU. Also popular were Alibaba Group Holding Inc BABA, Tencent Holdings Ltd TCEHY and, surprisingly, General Electric Inc. GE, even though the stock hit a 52-week low during the month.

Most Popular Sells

Stocks that were popular sells in the month include Ford Motor Company F, Kroger Co. KR, Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc VRX, AT&T Inc. T and Verizon Communications VZ.

Here's a look at how the IMX stacks up to the S&P 500 dating back to its inception in 2010. Data for January will be available on Feb. 5 here.