Chinese retail investors are back at it! Believing that "a pullback is a buying opportunity," they have net purchased 1.25 trillion since March.

When trading stocks, just look at the Golden Qilin analyst reports—authoritative, professional, timely, comprehensive—helping you uncover high-potential theme opportunities!

Cailian Press

Cailian Press April 4, 2026 (Reporter Wang Chen) In March just past, the A-share market suffered a sharp pullback under the combined pressure of the U.S.-Iran conflict and swings in overseas sentiment. The Shanghai Composite Index briefly fell from its early-month high of 4,197 points down to 3,794 points, with a full-month cumulative decline of nearly 6%. In early April, a brief strong opening came, but after that, over the next two days, the geographic conflict kept recurring, and the Shanghai Composite Index again lost the 3,900-point psychological level.

However, at the very moment when panic sentiment was spreading and Northbound capital was setting records for outflows, a “countercurrent” from Chinese retail investors was quietly flowing in—becoming the most difficult to ignore market force during this volatile month.

Based on Cailian Press’s analysis of fund flow data, account opening figures, and changes in margin trading accounts since March, the reporter found that individual investors not only did not flee in panic during the decline; instead, they “buy more the farther it falls.”

Data show that over the past month, funds from small-lot orders accumulated net inflows of as much as 1.25 trillion yuan, and each trading day remained positive. The deeper the market fell, the more aggressively retail investors bought. Meanwhile, in March, the number of newly opened A-share accounts reached 4.6 million, up 50% year over year and up 82% month over month, breaking the pattern that “account opening numbers are positively correlated with earning effectiveness.” Frontline brokerage business staff reported that many clients clearly stated, “A pullback is an opportunity to get on board.”

For a long time, retail investors have been labeled as “chasing rallies and selling during panics,” “emotion-driven trading,” and “lacking rationality.” However, in multiple periods of market volatility over the past two years, retail investors’ performance has been quietly changing.

Judging from several major rounds of turbulence since 2024, retail investors’ ability to take contrarian actions has clearly improved. Whether it was last April’s tariff shock or this March’s geopolitical disturbances, retail investors did not become an amplifier of panic. Instead, at critical moments, they played the role of a “stabilizer.”

Retail investors, represented by small-lot funds, record net inflows for 25 consecutive days

March’s A-share market can be described as a roller coaster ride of sentiment. Affected by the escalation of the U.S.-Iran conflict and the spillover of geopolitical risk, global capital markets’ risk-avoidance sentiment surged sharply. In mid-March, the A-share market once saw extreme “sentiment stampede.” On March 23 alone, nearly 5,200 individual stocks fell in a single day, and Northbound capital set a record for the largest net outflow in a single day in history. Looking at the whole month, the Shenzhen Component Index and the ChiNext Index fell by more than 7% and 8%, respectively. Small-cap growth indices such as the STAR Market 50 and the Beijing Stock Exchange 50 saw declines of more than 10%.

However, just when institutional capital was pulling back one after another and the market was entirely pessimistic, retail funds chose a completely different direction.

According to Cailian Press’s statistics based on fund flow data from March 1 to April 3, small-lot funds (the representative indicator of ordinary retail investors’ trading) accumulated net inflows of as much as 1.25 trillion yuan during that period.

Small-lot orders mainly measure ordinary retail investors’ trading behavior and market sentiment. This kind of order count is large and distribution is scattered, basically corresponding to the daily buying and selling activity of individual investors. By observing net inflows or net outflows of small-lot orders, one can intuitively judge whether retail investors are chasing highs and buying or panicking and selling to exit. They are often viewed as a “thermometer” of market sentiment.

By contrast, large-lot and super-large-lot funds representing institutional behavior recorded net outflows of 742.32 billion yuan and 612.67 billion yuan, respectively. It cannot be denied that many institutions have needs to manage positions to cope with market adjustments, so selling is understandable. But at the same time, it also reflects ordinary investors’ investment resolve. Middle-lot funds recorded net inflows of 12.5k yuan.

Even more noteworthy is that the inflow tempo of retail funds has a more clearly “contrarian” character. From daily fund flow figures, since March, each trading day’s net small-lot buying has remained positive. The more the market declines, the higher the net small-lot buying amount. And when the market experiences a brief rebound, the net small-lot buying amount instead narrows. This “buy more the more it falls” behavior pattern sharply contrasts with the traditional stereotype that retail investors “chase rallies and sell during panics.”

New account-opening data rise against the trend

Beyond fund flow direction, data on new investors also confirm that retail investors’ entry enthusiasm is heating up.

According to the latest account-opening data, in March 2026 the total number of newly opened accounts in the A-share market reached 4.6014 million for the whole month, of which 4.5882 million were opened by individual investors. Not only does this figure show a substantial month-on-month rise of 82% compared with 2.5230 million in February this year, but it is also up 50% year over year compared with 3.07 million in March last year.

Looking at historical patterns, changes in the number of new A-share account openings are typically highly positively correlated with market “profit-making effect.” When the market rises, it ignites enthusiasm to open accounts; when the profit-making effect fades, the number of account openings falls in sync. However, in March the overall market was in an adjustment channel, investors’ sentiment fluctuated repeatedly, yet the number of new account openings surged against the trend—an occurrence that is very rare in A-share markets in recent years.

More to note, in January this year, the number of new A-share account openings reached as high as 4.9158 million. At that time, market sentiment was high and the index kept pushing higher. In February, it fell back to 2.5230 million due to the Spring Festival factor. Then in March, despite continuous negative news from abroad, it instead moved back toward nearly 4.6 million. This “V-shaped” rebound curve of account openings precisely reflects retail investors’ recognition of the long-term allocation value of A-shares, not blind following of short-term sentiment.

Not only ordinary stock accounts, but also newly opened data for margin trading and securities lending (financing and securities lending) accounts have released positive signals as well.

The latest margin trading (financing and securities lending) account-opening data show that in March 2026, the entire market newly opened 190.5k financing and securities lending accounts, up 32% year over year from 144.5k in the same period last year, and up 63% month over month from 116.7k in February this year. This growth rate is clearly higher than the month-on-month growth rate for ordinary accounts. It indicates that not only ordinary retail investors are entering; margin investors with a certain risk tolerance and trading experience are also actively positioning themselves.

From a longer time perspective, newly opened margin trading account data have remained at relatively high levels since last August. In August 2025 and September 2025, 183k and 205.4k accounts were newly opened, respectively. Then it declined somewhat in the fourth quarter, but after entering 2026 it rose again. 190.5k were newly opened in January, and in March it reached this level again, showing that leveraged funds’ confidence in the outlook has not been shaken by short-term volatility.

Brokerage frontline feedback: clients say plainly, “A pullback is an opportunity to get on board”

Behind the data is a tangible change in investors’ behavior. Cailian Press recently learned from business personnel at multiple brokerages that since March, there has been a clear increase in individual investors making deposits, rebalancing positions, and adding to positions.

“One group of clients directly told us that previously the market was rising too fast, and they just didn’t dare to chase. Now that it has pulled back, they actually think it’s an opportunity.” A salesperson at a leading brokerage in East China told reporters that especially during several days in mid-March when the market fell quickly, retail investors did not liquidate; instead, they added to their positions.

Another wealth management professional at a brokerage in South China also expressed a similar view: “When the market had been rising consecutively since the fourth quarter last year, many retail investors were actually left behind, or their positions were very light. They didn’t want to buy; they were just afraid of buying at the highs. Now that the market has fallen and some risk has been released, it gives them an opportunity to get on board.”

This mindset of “a pullback is an opportunity” has been fully validated by small-lot fund flow during March. The data show that on March 23, when the market saw an extreme session with nearly 5,200 stocks falling, the net amount of small-lot buying actually hit a stage high. Retail investors did not choose to cut losses in panic; instead, they were greedy when others were afraid.

In fact, this contrarian entry phenomenon is not happening for the first time. Cailian Press previously recorded, in an article titled “A certain kind of power called ‘Chinese retail investors’; the survey shows: retail investors buy more the farther they fall, and that’s also why they become a stabilizer for A-shares,” that during last April’s period of turmoil triggered by former U.S. President Trump’s tariff policy shock, retail investors maintained a firm stance during the sharp sell-off.

At that time, the A-share market also suffered external shocks that caused rapid declines, and the market briefly fell into panic. But large numbers of retail investors did not choose to sell and exit. Instead, they actively bought at lower levels and became an important stabilizing force for the market. Now, nearly a year later, a similar scene is playing out again.

The difference is that this time the market environment is more complex. Geopolitical conflicts, expectations of tighter global liquidity, and multiple factors of risk-avoidance sentiment are intertwined, and the uncertainty facing A-shares is even higher than it was in April last year. However, retail investors’ investment behavior has shown stronger resolve and maturity.

Behind this is progress across multiple areas, including investor education, information access channels, and trading tools. More and more retail investors are starting to accept the ideas of long-term investing and value investing, and have learned to use market sentiment’s contrarian indicators for positioning. Many investors also diversify risk through tools such as ETFs and regular investment plans (定投), and no longer blindly chase hot themes or bet on individual stocks.

A massive amount of news and precise analysis—on the Sina Finance APP

责任编辑：Ling Chen