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There was little trading activity among 401(k) investors in the third quarter, according to the Alight Solution's 401(k) IndexTM. There were no days of above-normal1 trading activity. When trades occurred, they generally saw money moving to more conservative investments, with 84% of the days favoring fixed income. |
Third quarter observations:
- Net transfers for the quarter were 0.30% of balances. While this is nearly double the second quarter's record low, it is roughly half of the average quarterly's value for 2015-2020.
- 54 out of 64 trading days in the third quarter had net trading dollars moving from equities to fixed income.
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The Alight Solutions 401(k) Index statistics for Q3 2021 and year to date: |
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Index statistics |
Q3 2021 |
2021 YTD |
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Total transfers as percentage of starting balance |
0.30% |
0.51% |
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# Fixed days |
54 (84%) |
98 (52%) |
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# Equity days |
10 (16%) |
90 (48%) |
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# Above-normal days |
0 |
2 |
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Asset classes with most trading inflows in Q4 2021 |
Percentage of inflows |
Index dollar value ($mil) |
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Stable value funds |
44% |
$355 |
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Bond funds |
32% |
$261 |
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Money market funds |
11% |
$90 |
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Asset classes with most trading outflows in Q4 2021 |
Percentage of outflows |
Index dollar value ($mil) |
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Large U.S. equity funds |
30% |
$240 |
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Small U.S. equity funds |
23% |
$183 |
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Mid U.S. equity funds |
20% |
$161 |
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Returns for common indices |
Q2 2021 |
2021 YTD |
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Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index |
0.1% |
-1.6% |
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S&P 500 Index |
0.6% |
15.9% |
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Russell 2000 Index |
-4.4% |
12.4% |
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MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Index (net) |
-3.0% |
5.9% |
1 A “normal” level of relative transfer activity is when the net daily movement of participants’ balances, as a percent of total 401(k) balances within the Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™ equals between 0.3 times and 1.5 times the average daily net activity of the preceding 12 months. A “high” relative transfer activity day is when the net daily movement exceeds two times the average daily net activity. A “moderate” relative transfer activity day is when the net daily movement is between 1.5 and 2 times the average daily net activity of the preceding 12 months.
