Apple, Chipotle Attracted December Buyers Says TD Ameritrade Index

Retail investors were shopping for widely known stocks in December that might fare well once the holiday sales were tallied even as the broader market was selling off, said JJ Kinahan, chief strategist TD Ameritrade. TD Ameritrade’s Investor Movement Index (IMX) rose 0.8 percent in December to 4.92 compared to a 1.4 percent drop in the S&P 500. The IMX was positive for the third month in a row. The 52-week high for the IMX is 5.39 while its 52-week low is 4.63. Each month, TD Ameritrade pulls a sample from its client base of 6 million funded accounts that includes all accounts that completed a trade in the past month. The holdings and positions of this statistically significant sample are evaluated to calculate individual scores, and the median of those scores represents the monthly IMX. Kinahan said TD Ameritrade clients found buying opportunities in companies they thought might do well during the holiday shopping season such as Apple (AAPL) and FitBit (FIT) which were both net buys.