After the Nasdaq plunge, the "retail army" stepped in to buy the dip! NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) was a popular target, but net buying was relatively modest.

After U.S. stocks suffered their worst single-day selloff since 2025 on Thursday, U.S. retail investors, long keen on buying the dip, re-entered the market on Friday, trying to seize the rebound opportunity after the tech stock rout. However, unlike market corrections in past years, retail dip-buying enthusiasm was noticeably cooler this time. Although hard-hit tech stocks such as NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) and Intel Corporation (INTC.US) attracted some buying, persistent concerns over GEO Group Inc political risk and artificial intelligence (AI) kept investors cautious even as the market rebounded. According to Vanda Research data, retail investors did begin buying some of the sold-off stocks after Friday's open, but net buying in Nasdaq 100 constituents was relatively modest and weakened further afterward. Viraj Patel, the firm's global macro strategist, said NVIDIA Corporation was the most-bought stock by retail investors in the opening session on Friday. Previously, NVIDIA Corporation shares plunged 9.3% on Thursday, erasing all of this year's gains. Patel noted that Friday's retail trading presented a mixed picture. "There was some modest net buying, but it was far from frenzied," he said. "However, this is clearly also different from yesterday's early session, when individual stocks broadly saw large-scale net selling." In fact, even during Thursday's sharp selloff, some retail investors chose to add positions against the trend. The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ.US), which tracks the Nasdaq 100, plunged 6.5% on Thursday, marking its largest single-day drop since the COVID-19 pandemic triggered market panic in March 2020. Yet investors still poured US$2.8 billion into the fund that day, the largest single-day inflow since October 30. This suggests that despite the fierce tech selloff, some investors still believe the market correction will offer long-term buying opportunities. Meanwhile, highly leveraged trading products continued to be favored by active retail investors. Patel said that on Friday morning, the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares ETF (SOXL.US) and the ProShares UltraPro QQQ ETF (TQQQ.US) ranked near the top of retail buying lists. These two funds have also been among the main products retail investors have actively bought in recent weeks. Leveraged ETFs can amplify investors' daily return exposure to the underlying index or asset, making them popular with short-term traders. However, such products also magnify loss risk accordingly, especially during periods of severe market volatility. According to user trading data from Fidelity Investments' brokerage platform, retail investors on Thursday also concentrated buying popular investment targets such as NVIDIA Corporation, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO.US), SOXL and QQQ. In addition, companies including SpaceX, Micron Technology, Inc. (MU.US), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US) and SanDisk (SNDK.US) were among the most actively traded individual stocks by Fidelity users, with buy orders for some of these stocks at least double the number of sell orders. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, "buying the dip" has become one of the most representative trading strategies of U.S. retail investors. When U.S. stocks plunged in the early days of the pandemic in 2020, retail investors were one of the few investor groups buying against the trend. As the market subsequently rebounded strongly, many investors who persisted in bottom-fishing earned substantial returns, further reinforcing the investment belief that markets rise over the long term and declines are buying opportunities. However, with the growing popularity of leveraged products, some market participants have begun to worry that investors may be underestimating the risks during sustained downturns. Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. Class A, said: "The buy-the-dip mentality is deeply ingrained in the psyche of active investors. Because many people previously profited in rising markets through leveraged long products, they are still sticking with these tools." However, he warned: "I worry that we now have a generation of investors who would run into the building when the fire alarm goes off." This metaphor reflects market participants' concerns about retail investors' risk awareness: the dip-buying strategy that has worked repeatedly in the past may not work in every market decline. Although U.S. stocks rebounded on Friday, some experienced traders were still unwilling to significantly increase risk exposure. Sinisa Sorgic, who has 20 years of trading experience and works at proprietary trading firm Bright Trading, said he is cautiously buying some hard-hit chip stocks but is worried that the market may see another selloff early next week, so he is unwilling to go all in. Sorgic shorted Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR (TSM.US) on Thursday, but as the company's U.S. shares rebounded as much as 7.8% on Friday, his short trade suffered losses. "This is a dangerous period. I'm nervous, and I want to be able to sleep soundly at night," Sorgic said. He added: "Yesterday was simply a bloodbath. Market volatility is too severe right now; it's not yet time to go all in and buy the dip." Overall, retail investors still showed a tendency to buy the dip after this round of sharp U.S. stock declines, but compared with their aggressive attitude during past market corrections, this buying was clearly more cautious. Particularly noteworthy is that some retail investors still concentrated buying highly leveraged tech stock ETFs, reflecting that although investors are worried about market volatility, they have not completely abandoned high-risk trading strategies. As GEO Group Inc political uncertainty and concerns about the AI industry's outlook continue to weigh on market sentiment, whether retail investors can once again profit from buying the dip will still depend on the subsequent trajectory of U.S. stocks. And Friday's relatively modest buying also shows that even the most steadfast dip-buying force of the past is now beginning to reassess market risk.