TD Ameritrade: Retail Investors Feasted on Tech in May

Individual investors went on a tech buying binge in May, feasting on market bellwethers Apple (AAPL) - Get Report , Netflix (NFLX) - Get Report and Facebook (FB) - Get Report , said JJ Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade (AMTD) - Get Report . TD Ameritrade's Investor Movement Index (IMX) rose 10.4 percent in May to 4.87 from 4.41 in April compared to a 1.6 percent rise in the S&P 500. The 52-week high for the IMX is 5.39 while the 52-week low is 4.33. 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. Apple was a net buy for the period as the stock trended downward until mid-month following an unfavorable earnings announcement. Facebook, which has traded to new highs this year but was largely range bound during the month, was a net buy as well, according to TD Ameritrade. Netflix was also a buy for TD Ameritrade clients during the period and, like Apple, saw its share price rebound toward the end of the period.