What Stocks Are People Buying?

What Stocks Are People Buying? When you’re trying to put together your ideal stock buying plan, it often helps to know what other people are buying. It’s not about copying someone else’s investment plan blindly! It’s more about understanding the market context you’re working with, and how technicals as well as “anecdotal data” apply to a given equity.

With that in mind, here’s a little guidance for those who looking to see what stocks are popular now among other investors.

What Stocks Are Being Bought The Most?

In terms of stocks that are being bought and sold at the most frequent rates, one stock towers above the others. With average volume of 126.9 million right now, the AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) stock is a big presence in today’s market, and it’s unusually volatile.

The reason, in part, has to do with interest from “persons on the street,” or the common small investor. After rumors of runaway short activity by hedge funds, large numbers of small investors have piled onto the AMC stock and continue to bolster its stock price. Look for key numbers to come out within the next few weeks.

The next two stocks with the highest trading volume right now are two established blue-chip companies – Ford (F) and Apple (APPL).

Although these two stocks are alike in some ways, where they differ is that Apple’s stock has been continually rising, making it a favorite of Warren Buffett and others – we’ll talk about that a little more later – while Ford’s stock has been down in the doldrums resting around $10 per share for years.

Both of these stocks now have average volume of 80 million right now, making them the next largest-volume traders.

What Stocks Should Everyone Own?

When it comes to the kinds of stocks that are often recommended for a wide variety of investors, you have your technology group, as well as other bellwethers that have stood the test of time.

First, traders should make it their business to be familiar with what’s known as the FAANG group: Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX) and Google (GOOG).

All of these are technology stocks with demonstrated value, and so they’re often at the top of an investor’s menu. That’s partly because of the primacy of big tech stocks – in an era where so many other businesses are fading, tech companies are seen as blossoming due to rapid advances in both hardware and software computing.

Then in terms of other universally popular stocks, there’s also Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Warren Buffett’s company. BRK probably needs no introduction for those who understand the Oracle of Omaha’s prime place in the investor’s world, and its appeal is often based on how investors idolize this man with his record of stock wins.

Last, but not least, companies like Procter & Gamble (PG) represent established blue-chip consumer product plays, where selling things like shampoo and soap for decades builds a solid foundation for a firm’s brand value.

What Are The Safest Stocks To Invest In?

Let’s say you want to put money into a stock for the long haul, and you want something that’s less likely to fold like a cheap tent, and more likely to keep delivering gains for future quarters.

Here’s where we look at something like a dividend yield, for a couple of reasons.

First, the dividend is actual share value that the company gives to investors. So as long as you hold the shares before a dividend ex-date, you get the actual cash, which you can re-invest, or put in your money market or checking account.

Also, in general, the safest stocks are long-term deliverers of value; blue-chip stock choices familiar on the exchanges. Dividends tend to be issued by established companies, which is one reason why investors might use dividend yield as a marker of whether a stock is attractive as a long-term gainer.

With that in mind, there’s a key metric called dividend yield, which is the portion of share value the company routinely doles out to those who are holding the shares. The dividend yield is a good guide for attractive holdings where the trader will get dividend value at regular intervals.

If we go back to Procter & Gamble, for example, we see that the company has a dividend yield of 2.4%. So you’re not just trading on the firm’s decades of solid business. You’re also getting those dividend returns.

Another example are the twin soda giants, Coke (KO) and Pepsi (PEP), where PEP delivers a dividend of 2.76%, and KO offers 3.08%.

You can see how this works: since they’ve been accruing capital for the better part of a century developing their fizzy drink lines, these companies have holdings they can distribute back to shareholders in dividends.

It’s notable to point out that Coca Cola has been one of Warren Buffett’s biggest holdings on a balance sheet ranging into the billions of dollars. His buy-and-hold strategy firmly represents involvement in this kind of trading philosophy, and the junction of big dividend stocks and Buffett picks is no coincidence.

What Are The Best Stock for Beginners?

Blue-chip stocks are also good investment opportunities for beginners who may not know much about the more volatile ends of the market.

As companies that have operated with profits over many years, these top stocks are stable and secure in ways that other stocks, for example, penny stocks or new biotech stocks, or even run-of-the-mill retailers, may not be.

On our list of top blue-chip stocks, we have all of the big tech companies, except for Netflix (NFLX). Netflix, of course, does have its own established track record, so it can be an alternative, but the big five tech companies on our list are Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT).

Any of these represent relatively stable equities that are built on familiar technology models where a company has carved out a rather deep “moat” – a unique proposition that prevents competitors from stepping too much on their toes. You can see that for each of these big tech companies, they dominate their respective segments, and that is part of what leads investors to expect long-term above-average returns.

Then again we come back to Berkshire Hathaway as an established blue-chip stock. But American firms don’t have an exclusive hold on blue-chip value. One international play that we profile is Tencent Holdings, a Chinese company that operates its own variety of social media and tech subsidiaries. For the conservative-minded however, companies like Colgate (CL) still hold sway.

What Stocks Are People Buying? The Bottom Line

In conclusion, people are buying stocks that they think will perform well long-term, to support their investment funds, whether those are day-trading funds, retirement accounts or other types of savings.

Although established blue-chip stocks remain a relatively safe investment compared to many kinds of startup and new IPO stocks, investors should learn to trade using a combination of fundamentals – looking at revenues, earnings-per-share and other metrics, and technicals, such as 1-day, 5-day, 1-month and 6-month averages (and other longer time horizons), to figure out where a stock may go in the future.

Along the way, they will learn to identify opportunities for profit taking, limit churning, which can decrease investment value, and build philosophies and strategies for long-term investing.

We offer specific kinds of financial analysis to help investors figure out where a stock sits relative to the big picture and its chart history. We also have other resources available on the site to help guide new investors – so go forward with confidence!

---

The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Financhill has a disclosure policy. This post may contain affiliate links or links from our sponsors.