Goldman Sachs: Retail Investors Account for 30% of U.S. Stock Trading Volume, June Trading Reaches Record High

Goldman Sachs data shows that retail investors currently account for approximately 30% of the daily trading volume in U.S. stocks. In May of this year, retail stock trading volume was 10% higher than the peak in January 2021, and June further set a new historical record. The options market has seen increased activity, with daily trading volumes exceeding 50 million contracts multiple times this year, doubling compared to three years ago. Data from Citadel Securities indicates that July became one of the months with the strongest retail buying power, with no instances of net selling on any single day, forcing some low-position institutions to chase prices at high levels. Goldman Sachs estimates that the asset size held by retail investors in brokerage accounts has reached $1.2 trillion, accounting for about 10% of the U.S. corporate equity market; when including directly and indirectly held assets, the scale of U.S. individual investors reaches $1.11 trillion. Goldman Sachs' head of execution services, Bobby Molavi, described this as the "white whale" of the capital markets. There are differing views in the market regarding the AI narrative driving this round of market activity, with commentator Ed Zitron warning that OpenAI's high computing costs and infrastructure debt could lead to an "AI version of the Lehman moment"; Oak Tree Capital co-chairman Howard Marks believes that the productivity potential of AI may offset short-term financial pressures.