Mom and Pop Sit Out Rally, With Stock Exposure at 6-Year Low

TD Ameritrade client activity index falls to lowest since 2012
Individual investors buy fixed-income, sell Facebook, Twitter

A Wall Street sign is displayed in front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018.Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

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By Sarah Ponczek and Reade Pickert

February 4, 2019 at 3:32 PM UTC

Updated on

February 4, 2019 at 8:08 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

January may have seen the strongest start to a year for U.S. stocks in more than three decades, but many retail investors watched the rally from the sidelines.

Clients of TD Ameritrade, already skittish at the end of 2018, further cut their exposure to the stock market in the first four weeks of the New Year, the Omaha, Nebraska-based brokerage said Monday. The firm’s Investor Movement Index -- which has tracked clients’ positioning in the market since 2010 -- declined for the fourth straight month to its lowest since July 2012.