Charles Schwab (SCHW) said on Monday that The Schwab Trading Activity Index, or STAX, fell to 48.48 in December after recording its sixth consecutive month of increase to 48.75 in November.
STAX analyzes retail investor stock positions and trading activity from Schwab’s client accounts to illuminate what investors were actually doing and how they were positioned in the markets each month.
“As we saw throughout 2025, Schwab’s clients trimmed into strength and sought dips to buy into, particularly as the market hit 52-week highs near the month’s end,” said Joe Mazzola, head trading and derivatives strategist at Charles Schwab.
Clients were net sellers during December, with much of the selling occurring during the holiday-shortened final week. The selling activity more likely represented end-of-year repositioning activity than a major sentiment change, noted Charles Schwab.
At the sector level, Information Technology went from the largest net-buy in November to biggest net-sell in December. Consumer Discretionary saw the second-most net selling, followed by Health Care, Industrials, and Energy.
Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, were again the most aggressively positioned investors for the month. Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012, were the least.
Popular names bought by Schwab (SCHW) clients during the month included: Netflix (NFLX), NVIDIA (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO), Amazon.com (AMZN), and Alphabet (GOOG).
Names net sold included: Tesla (TSLA), Palantir Technologies (PLTR), Intel (INTC), Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), and Rivian Automotive (RIVN).