Investor movement index unchanged in last month of 2022
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The TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index (IMX) came in at 4.17 in December, unchanged from the November score. The reading for the five-week period ending Dec. 30, 2022 ranked âlowâ compared with historic averages. 
For the most part, TD Ameritrade clients were net sellers of equities during the month, though some buying interest took hold in the Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Energy, Financial, and Real Estate sectors. The strongest selling occurred in Information Technology. 
âDecember included both macroeconomic catalysts and the tail-end of earnings season, but ultimately the whiplash retail traders experienced from the up-down nature of the news cycle left TD Ameritrade clientsâ overall market exposure unchanged," said Shawn Cruz, head trading strategist at TD Ameritrade.
"Itâs a fitting end to a year that exposed some significant headwinds to addressing the macroeconomic challenges impacting the markets, but it also leaves substantial room for optimism as we head into 2023,â he added. 
While TD Ameritrade clients mostly reduced their equity exposure, they did find some beaten down names to buy during the period, including Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Lucid Group (NASDAQ:LCID), Ford Motor (NYSE:F), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS). 
Stocks sold during the month included: Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX). 
What would make retail investors net buyers going forward? Cruz highlighted some main themes to watch out for in 2023: a continued cooldown in inflation and other macroeconomic data, thus a potentially less hawkish Federal Reserve. In agreement with most forecasts, he warned that the U.S. economy will likely slide into recession this year as the central bank seeks to push up borrowing costs to a sufficiently restrictive zone to get consumer prices under control. 
The behavior-based IMX index aggregates Main Street investor positions and activity to measure what investors actually were doing and how they were positioned in the markets.
Stocks saw their first significant rally of 2023 on Jan. 6, as traders cheered the stronger-than-expected jobs report.