Defence software and hardware developer DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO) was the most traded ASX share last month among investors using the Selfwealth trading platform.
Extreme volatility in the Droneshield share price was probably the key driver of the high trading volume.
The Droneshield share price rose by 51.16% between 1 July and 15 July to a new 52-week high of $2.72.
From 16 July through to the end of the month, Droneshield shares crashed, shedding 46.54% in market capitalisation. In the end, Droneshield shares lost 19.19% in value over the month.
My colleague Bernd explains the drivers behind all of this in detail in an article published in late July.
Meantime, the consensus rating on Droneshield shares among analysts on the CommSec trading platform today is a moderate buy.
They forecast earnings per share (EPS) growth of 1.9 cents per share for Droneshield in 2024. This would be followed by 2.1 cents per share EPS growth in 2025 and 3 cents per share in 2026.
Let's take a look at the other ASX shares making up the 10 most traded stocks last month.
Top 10 most traded ASX shares in July
Here are the top 10 most traded ASX shares in July by volume (incorporating both buy and sell orders), according to Selfwealth Ltd (ASX: SWF) data.
We have also included the percentage of buy orders, which may be an indicator of investors' conviction on each ASX share.
| Rank | Top ASX shares by trading volume | Percentage of buy orders |
| 1 | DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO) | 58.5% |
| 2 | BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) | 67.2% |
| 3 | Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG) | 72.5% |
| 4 | Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) | 59.2% |
| 5 | Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) | 61.8% |
| 6 | ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ) | 47% |
| 7 | Zip Co Ltd (ASX: ZIP) | 53% |
| 8 | Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) | 49.3% |
| 9 | Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) | 71.3% |
| 10 | Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) | 29.9% |
Top 10 most traded US stocks in July
Graphics processing units (GPUs) chip maker NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) was the most traded US stock by Selfwealth clients in July.
Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike also features in the top 10. In mid-July, the company distributed a faulty update to its Falcon Sensor software. This caused system issues worldwide for Microsoft Windows users.
The Crowdstrike share price plunged 39.5% over the month.
Here are the top 10 most traded US stocks in July among Selfwealth investors.
| Rank | Top US stocks by trading volume | Percentage of buy orders |
| 1 | NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) | 77% |
| 2 | Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) | 51.9% |
| 3 | Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) | 57.4% |
| 4 | Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) | 72.3% |
| 5 | Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: CRWD) | 69.2% |
| 6 | Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) | 70.1% |
| 7 | Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ: GOOGL) | 67.6% |
| 8 | Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) | 60% |
| 9 | Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (NYSE: TSM) | 64.8% |
| 10 | Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE: PLTR) | 70.70% |
