Small investors have experienced a summer stock market that has been as unpredictable as the weather. But a large part of the customers at the online bank Nordnet have adapted to the uncertainty.
Frida Bratt, savings economist at Nordnet, sees a new pattern: Stock investors who take advantage of the stock market's sharp turns.
Many now see a turbulent situation as a buying opportunity and take the chance to buy stocks that have fallen in the belief that they may go up again soon, she says.
Investing domestically
Earlier this year, investors and small investors have tended to choose to avoid US stocks and funds and buy what does not have such large exposure to the US. According to Frida Bratt, this trend continues.
One starts to look more towards Europe. What we have seen since the beginning of the year is also that one buys domestically, Swedish, she says.
This may involve Swedish industrial and telecom companies that have shown themselves to be relatively stable in the sharp turns.
Although many customers have sold American stocks since the beginning of the year, the American technology company Nvidia has been an exception.
But in June, we see a trend break, savers choose to sell Nvidia as well, says Frida Bratt.
The stock has gone strong in June and many choose to sell to bring home profits, she believes.
Abandoning crypto for defense
The uncertain world situation has also led small investors to an increasing extent to return to buying defense stocks, according to Frida Bratt. A trend that is also clearly noticeable among the online bank Avanza's customers.
Fund trading is generally cautious, but we see a clear increase in global defense stocks with exposure to both Europe and the US, says Felicia Schön, private economist at Avanza.
Savers are moving to a lesser extent towards technology funds and more towards defense, commodities, gold, and oil, according to Felicia Schön.
At Avanza, however, the customers seem to have become somewhat more security-seeking than before in their choice of funds. The online bank noted three times as many purchases of bond funds as stock funds this year compared to June last year, according to Schön, who also sees a clear trend among savers to abandon cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin.
Perhaps the downward trend for cryptocurrencies testifies to a weakened confidence in President Trump, who has backed up crypto, she reasons.
