Each week, we Fools like to look at the most traded shares Aussies are buying and selling. Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (ASX: CBA) CommSec platform provides week-to-week data on both the most traded ASX shares and the most traded international shares (which are almost always United States shares). So here are the most traded US shares that Aussies were trading last week (21-25 September).
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Most traded international shares on the ASX
The five most traded international shares last week were these:
- Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) — representing 15.8% of total trades with an 84%/16% buy-to-sell ratio.
- Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) — representing 5.4% of total trades with an 82%/18% buy-to-sell ratio.
- Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) — representing 1.9% of total trades with a 79%/21% buy-to-sell ratio.
- Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) — representing 1.9% of total trades with a 75%/25% buy-to-sell ratio.
- Nikola Corporation (NASDAQ: NKLA) — representing 1.3% of total trades with a 53%/47% buy-to-sell ratio.
The next five most traded shares were the following:
6. Workhorse Group Inc (NASDAQ: WKHS)
7. Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ: GOOG)
8. Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO)
9. Zoom Video Communications Inc (NASDAQ: ZM)
10. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA)
What can we learn from these trades?
Once again, we see the big US tech companies and electric auto companies dominating the list, with Elon Musk's electric car and battery manufacturer Tesla again claiming top spot by quite a large margin there, almost triple that of Apple in the number two spot. Over the period in question, Tesla shares were down nearly 10%, so clearly there were some ASX investors looking to scoop up a perceived bargain here (the Tesla share price is up 8% since 25 September, so it's paid off so far). Work-from-home market darling, Zoom, also made a rare appearance.
Nikola, Workhorse and Nio are all electric vehicle manufacturers as well, although these companies are clearly in the 'speculative' side of the market (in my view anyway). It's clear that many ASX investors think these companies are worth taking a shot on, even if most (excepting Chinese company, Nio) have yet to produce a market-ready vehicle. These shares are highly volatile. As an example, Workhorse stock was down 18% between 21-25 September, and up more than 22% between 25 September and today. How's that for a rollercoaster!
That's nothing compared to the embattled Nikola though. The Nikola share price lost 30% over the same period (and a further 8% since). That probably explains why Nikola is the only share with anything close to an even buy/sell split on this list.
The speculative appetite among ASX retail investors reflects a broader shift in how people interact with financial markets. App-driven trading platforms have made it trivially easy to act on a hunch, and user-behaviour data from several brokerages suggests that many of the same accounts trading volatile EV stocks also maintain a sports betting app and a crypto wallet on the same device. That overlap in risk appetite goes a long way toward explaining why names like Nikola and Workhorse keep surfacing in the most-traded lists despite thin fundamentals.
Foolish takeaway
It was an interesting set of numbers last week for the ASX's most traded international shares, with some familiar and surprising names coming up. It will be fascinating to see what this week's numbers drag up.
