[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-21/money-losing-retail-crowd-keeps-buying-stocks-as-market-teeters?srnd=homepage-americas&sref=RafJZKpr](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-21/money-losing-retail-crowd-keeps-buying-stocks-as-market-teeters?srnd=homepage-americas&sref=RafJZKpr)
>In a stock market battered by trade turmoil and growing fears of an economic slowdown, retail investors are doubling down, undeterred as their losses mount.
>Individual traders pumped more than $12 billion into US equities in the week ending March 19, retail-trading data from JPMorgan Chase & Co. showed. The pace of buying was significantly higher than the group’s 12-month average, according to Emma Wu, a global equity derivatives strategist at the bank.
>Market watchers keep a close eye on retail traders as they are often the last to cut their exposure to stocks, so the latest bout of aggressive buying from mom-and-pop investors may suggest that equities haven’t found the bottom yet.
>The recent behavior of individual investors is characteristic of a “down” year in the stock market, Wu said. It was also seen in 2022, she noted. That’s when the equity benchmark sank 19%, the only down year of the past six. “This is a hallmark of their ‘buy-the-dip’ mentality,” Wu said.
