According to the Financial Associated Press on December 26 (Editor: Shi Zhengcheng), the ETF with the Global largest scale has once again missed out on the title of "favorite symbol among US retail investors" this year. $SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY.US)$ After being trampled last year, it has again been overshadowed by the total leader in AI over the past year. $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ Crushingly dominant.

According to Statistics from research institution Vanda Research, as of the 17th of this month, retail investors have net bought a total of $29.8 billion in NVIDIA stocks this year, nearly double that of the SPY Fund ($15.3 billion net bought).

In third place is Tesla ($14.7 billion), which even has the chance to go further. Tracking the NASDAQ 100 Index. $Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ.US)$ In fourth place is another AI computing concept stock ($9.8 billion). $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ ($9.8 billion).

Marco Iachini, Senior Vice President of Vanda Research, stated that due to impressive gains, NVIDIA has become the stock that takes the limelight from Tesla, and the stock performance speaks for itself.

As of Christmas, NVIDIA has achieved a cumulative increase of 183.15% this year. This not only makes the company the second-highest Market Cap publicly traded company globally, but also helped it gain entry into the Dow Jones components.

Data shows that compared to three years ago when it was a concept stock in the cryptocurrency sector/game graphics card sector, the net inflow of retail funds into NVIDIA has increased by 885% this year.

Vanda's data also shows that after this year's buying and the rise in stocks, NVIDIA's share in typical small retail investors' holdings has rapidly increased. By the end of the year, this figure has exceeded 10%, second only to Tesla, while at the beginning of the year it was 5.5%.

Furthermore, as the AI leader continues to rise, retail investors seem to have developed a dependency—besides aggressively buying NVIDIA stocks on earnings report release days, during the summer this year, when NVIDIA fell from $140 to below $100, retail investors were also net buyers.

Of course, having many retail investors also brings greater volatility. Morningstar equity strategist Brian Colello stated that as a super large market cap company, NVIDIA's volatility is "quite significant", showcasing the influence retail traders can have on pulling stock prices. Colello remarked that sometimes, large companies like this can have very large stock price fluctuations on any given day, which is truly surprising.

Who will it be next year?

In Iachini's view, for NVIDIA to continue dominating as the "most loved stock by retail investors" next year, it will likely face some challenges. Even though CEO Jensen Huang has his signature black leather jacket, there is still a significant difference compared to representatives of listed companies that dominate the public spotlight like Elon Musk.

A bigger variable this year is the emergence of a dark horse in the fourth quarter - AI application concept stocks. $Palantir (PLTR.US)$ 。

Palantir has accumulated a rise of 379.79% so far this year, with a doubling increase in the fourth quarter. According to Vanda, this stock has become the 9th most popular security in 2024, surpassing established technology stocks. $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ 、 $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ /$Alphabet-C (GOOG.US)$ and $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ 。

What has made retail investors exclaim "The company has me in mind" is that Palantir's CEO, Alex Karp, released a Christmas video thanking investors last Sunday.

Karp expressed to retail investors, "I am deeply grateful to all those retail investors who spend time and have the courage to break through traditional norms and discard clichés!"

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编辑/jayden