Apple, Facebook and Tesla Motors were three of the top four most popular stocks among one firm’s users last month. Apple and Tesla didn’t do anything to help investors as analysis from openfolio indicates that the majority of investors who use its platform lost money in February—and this even though the markets were essentially flat during the month.
Facebook also earned another distinction: that of being the biggest wealth creator among openfolio users last month.
Two-thirds of openfolio users lose money
According to openfolio, 66% of investors who use its portfolio lost money during the month of February amid the stock market’s extreme volatility. And those who did manage to make money had “fairly conservative” portfolios, the firm said, as an average of 53% of these investors’ portfolios was invested into funds and just 38% into stocks. Further, an average of 22% of the portfolios of investors who lost money was invested into funds, while 66% was invested into stocks.
As the following graph shows, most investors underperformed the S&P 500 throughout most of the month of February. This continues the underperformance trend openfolio has noted in almost every month over the last year.
The firm explains that the markets began recovering from “significant” losses in the middle of February as worries about an impending recession started to abate, ending the month basically flat. It adds that this is why two-thirds of investors lost money during the money.
Apple, Facebook, Tesla among the most popular stocks
The Openfolio Investor Average indicates that the Technology sector isn’t the biggest holding anymore as exposure fell from 20% to 14%. Despite this, Technology still has a firm grip in popularity among the firm’s users as Apple and Facebook still hold the top two slots:
The list hasn’t changed month over month.
LinkedIn was the largest weighted gainer on openfolio’s most popular stock list as it jumped 25 slots month over month. The biggest weighted loser was American International Group, which declined eight spots to the 96th position. SolarCity and PayPal also saw significant month over month changes:
SolarCity destroys wealth
Even though Apple was among openfolio’s most popular stocks, it wasn’t the biggest wealth creator. Facebook earned that honor last month, climbing 14.26%. Interestingly, the much-maligned GoPro gained 15.93% to become one of the biggest wealth creators among the firm’s users.
SolarCity, the 33rd most popular stock among openfolio users, was the biggest wealth destroyer last month, and LinkedIn was in second place even though it saw a significant increase in popularity.
