On July 16, Goldman Sachs data showed that retail investors currently account for about 30% of daily trading volume in US stocks. In May this year, retail stock trading value was 10% higher than the peak during the “retail vs. Wall Street” period in January 2021, and in June it further refreshed the historical record.

Options market activity has risen in tandem; since the start of this year, daily trading volume has broken 50 million contracts multiple times, doubling versus three years ago. Citadel Securities data shows that July became one of the strongest months in its records for retail buying intensity, and it has not yet seen any single-day net selling. Continued buying has also pushed some low-position institutions to chase gains at higher levels.

Goldman Sachs estimates that the asset value held in retail-held brokerage accounts has reached $12 trillion, or about 10% of the US corporate equity market; if direct and indirect holdings are included, the size of US individual investors reaches $111 trillion. Bobby Molavi, head of execution services at Goldman Sachs, described it as the “big white whale” in capital markets.

However, there remains disagreement in the market over the AI narrative driving this leg of the rally. Commentator Ed Zitron warned that OpenAI’s high spending on compute and infrastructure debt could bring an “AI version of Lehman moment”; Howard Marks, co-chairman of Oaktree Capital, believes that AI’s productivity potential may offset near-term financial pressure. #PreIPOs第二期OpenAI认购