Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™: January 2020 observations

A volatile January on Wall Street prompted 401(k) investors to increase trading, according to the Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™. January had five days of above-normal¹ activity – three more than the combined total of the last four months of 2019.

January observations:

• On average, 0.021% of 401(k) balances were traded daily
• 12 of 21 days favored fixed income funds

Alight Solutions 401(k) Index statistics for January 2020:

Inflows and outflows during January:

• Trading inflows mainly went to bond, target date² and international equity funds
• Outflows were primarily from stable value, large U.S. equity and small U.S. equity funds

Asset classes with most trading inflows in January 

Asset classes with most trading outflows in January

January investment portfolios:

• After reflecting market movements and trading activity, average asset allocation in equities decreased from 68.1% in December to 67.7% in January
• New contributions to equities increased from 67.4% in December to 68.0% in January

Asset classes with largest percentage of total balance at end of January

Asset classes with most contributions in January

January market observations:

January was a volatile month for investors. U.S. bonds (represented by the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index) generated a positive return of 1.9%. U.S. large cap equities (represented by the S&P 500 Index) were flat, international equities (represented by the MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Index) dropped 2.7% and U.S. small cap equities (represented by the Russell 2000 Index) fell 3.2%.

Returns for common indices

Members of the media: please contact Landis Cullen for questions about the Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™.  Learn more about the Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™ here.

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 two times the average daily net activity of the preceding 12 months.

2. Target date funds also include the amounts in target risk funds. The amount in the target risk funds is less than 10% of the total.