The Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS) and other exchange-traded funds (ETFs) dominate the list of most traded securities among millennial investors using the Selfwealth platform in FY24.
Selfwealth Ltd (ASX: SWF) has released trading activity figures for the 2024 financial year.
The data shows millennials, who were born between 1981 and 1995, are big fans of ASX ETFs. These are relatively new products that were introduced to the ASX in 2001.
ETFs are baskets of stocks that allow investors to achieve easy diversification in a single trade.
The most basic form is index-based ETFs.
These ETFs seek to mirror the performance of major indices like the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) stocks, or in the case of the VAS ETF, the S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) shares.
Let's take a look at the data.
Millennial investors strongly favour ASX ETFs like VAS
Among the top 10 ASX 200 securities favoured by millennial investors are eight ASX ETFs led by VAS.
This trend is in stark contrast to their parents, the baby boomer investors. As we've reported, they tend to prefer the traditional blue-chip ASX 200 dividend-paying stocks.
According to the Selfwealth data, the top 10 most traded securities represented 20.2% of all trades made by millennial investors in FY24.
This implies millennial investors really love this particular collection of securities. Selfwealth also noted that millennials' buying conviction on these 10 ASX 200 stocks and ETFs was particularly high.
For example, 80.6% of trades in the VAS ETF were buy transactions and 19.4% were sell orders.
According to the report:
Buying conviction dominated the top ten most traded names for this cohort, with the average buy-to-sell ratio being 78.3%.
A key driver for this high ratio is likely to be the fact that ETFs were a popular trading tool for Selfwealth Millennials in FY24, with eight of the top ten trades being ASX-listed funds.
While millennials seem very committed to their 10 favourite ASX 200 stocks and ETFs, they're open to other ideas, too.
Selfwealth said this generation of clientele traded the greatest number of individual securities in FY24.
In total, Selfwealth said millennial investors placed buy and sell orders on 4,985 unique securities in FY24.
These incorporated ASX 200 stocks, ASX ETFs, international shares, and other securities.
Millennials showed strong interest in individual US shares and bought ETFs tracking US indices, too.
The favoured ETFs include the iShares S&P 500 AUD ETF (ASX: IVV), which tracks the S&P 500 Index (SP: .INX), and the Vanguard US Total Market Shares Index ETF (ASX: VTS), which tracks the performance of the 3,700 US stocks that comprise the CRSP US Total Market Index (NASDAQ: CRSPTM1).
Just two individual ASX 200 stocks feature in the top 10 favourite securities of millennial investors. They are ASX mining shares Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) and BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP).
Top 10 most traded ASX 200 stocks and ETFs
Here are the top 10 most traded securities by volume (thus incorporating both buy and sell orders) among millennial investors in FY24.
The percentage of buy orders is also reported alongside each ASX 200 stock and ETF.
| Rank | Top ASX 200 stocks and ETFs by trading volume | Percentage of buy orders |
| 1 | Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS) | 80.6% |
| 2 | Vanguard Diversified High Growth Index ETF (ASX: VDHG) | 76.1% |
| 3 | Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF (ASX: VGS) | 84.5% |
| 4 | iShares S&P 500 AUD ETF (ASX: IVV) | 86.8% |
| 5 | Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF (ASX: NDQ) | 76.8% |
| 6 | Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) | 58.5% |
| 7 | BetaShares Australia 200 ETF (ASX: A200) | 82% |
| 8 | BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) | 61% |
| 9 | BetaShares Diversified All Growth ETF (ASX: DHHF) | 84.9% |
| 10 | Vanguard US Total Market Shares Index AUD ETF (ASX: VTS) | 77.8% |
Many of the ASX ETFs featured in this list are among the cheapest on the market in terms of fees.
