There has been a mixed reaction from retail investors to the current global stock market volatility brought about by the ‘Liberation Day’ tariff announcements on April 2.
Some have used the Trump tariff announcements as a buying opportunity amid a global sell-off others have used the opportunity to protect and reposition portfolios, or just to raise cash.
Charlie Musson, managing director of AJ Bell’s investment platform for DIY investors, comments: ‘Current market volatility has caught the attention of DIY investors, with significantly higher than usual trading activity in recent days as customers use the flexibility of our platform to protect and reposition their portfolios.
‘On Friday and Monday, we saw significant increases in the volume of money traded via the platform. Some of this will be customers selling down positions and holding cash while they wait to see how far the global sell-off goes.’
On the day that Trump’s reciprocal tariffs take effect (9 April) we look at what stocks, funds and trusts AJ Bell customers have been buying and selling.
Some of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ make an appearance in the top 10 of most bought and sold stocks this month including Elon Musk-owned Tesla (TSLA:NASDAQ) and chip designer Nvidia (NVDA:NASDAQ).
Tesla’s share price has been hit by repeated bad news so far this year and has lost 45% year-to-date in response to Trump’s tariffs come on the automotive sector.
The bad news for Tesla is not solely related to Trump but also to disappointing first quarter sales which the company revealed on 2 April.
Sales were particularly poor in Europe, falling 49% in the first two months of 2025, reflecting a potential consumer backlash against the Tesla brand after Musk's increased involvement in the political sphere.
In relation to funds AJ Bell customers have been buying and selling Baillie Gifford American (0606196) and Fidelity Index World (BP8RYB6).
This is not hard to see why, the former fund has low ongoing charges of 0.53% and invests mainly in US companies (approximately 90%) like Netflix (NFLX: NASDAQ) and Amazon (AMZN:NASDAQ), both featuring in its top 10 holdings.
Finally, AJ Bell customers have been buying and selling the following investment trusts over the past month-Scottish Mortgage (SMT), City of London (CTY) and JP Morgan Global Growth & Income (JGGI).
The Baillie Gifford flagship fund Scottish Mortgage has not performed that well over the past month, falling 13% as it got caught up in the global stock market rout sparked by Trump’s tariffs. The trust’s top 10 is largely made up of US technology stocks like Nvidia, Amazon which have bore the brunt of recent fall in the tech-heavy Nasdaq index – which has fallen 12% over the last month.
It is also interesting to see buying and selling activity around City of London which is a UK equity income stalwart managed by Job Curtis, delivering a dividend yield of 4.99% to investors. Over the past year it has returned 7.5% to investors, beating its benchmark.
DISCLAIMER: Financial services company AJ Bell referenced in this article owns Shares magazine. The author of this article (Sabuhi Gard) and the editor (Martin Gamble) owns shares in AJ Bell.
