Schwab Trading Activity Index

Score Ascends to Moderate Levels in March

The Schwab Trading Activity Index (STAX) increased to 51.65 in March, up from its score of 47.65 in February. The only index of its kind, the STAX is a proprietary, behavior-based index that analyzes retail investor stock positions and trading activity from Schwab’s millions of client accounts to illuminate what investors were actually doing and how they were positioned in the markets each month.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240408112995/en/

Schwab Trading Activity Index March 2024 (Graphic: Charles Schwab)

The reading for the four-week period ending March 28, 2024 ranks “moderate” compared to historic averages and marks the highest reading since May 2022.

“In the face of undeniably mixed macroeconomic data, the markets soared this month, and the STAX score continued its rise in step,” said Joe Mazzola, Director of Trading and Education at Charles Schwab. “Despite the market highs, however, Schwab clients remain in the moderate range of market exposure as measured by the STAX. They net bought equities in March, but we continue to see that retail investors are engaging in strategic, thoughtful buying. There’s palpable enthusiasm when it comes to names related to technology, for example, but clients also found areas to moderate and trim exposure.”

U.S. equity markets continued to rally and reached new all-time highs during the March STAX period despite key data pushing back against the narrative that Fed rate cuts could begin as early as May. On February 29, initial jobless claims came in at 215,000, slightly higher than expected, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics’ Employment Situation Summary released on March 8 showed that nonfarm payrolls increased by 275,000 in February - significantly better than expected. However, the unemployment rate increased to 3.9%, higher than the anticipated 3.7%. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose, as anticipated, by 0.4% for the month of February, bringing the 12-month increase to 3.2% before seasonal adjustment, while the Producer Price index (PPI) came in much higher than expected at 0.6% vs expectations of 0.3%. U.S. Retail Sales for February increased 0.6% from the previous month, slower than an expected increase of 0.8%.