401(k) investors concentrated their trading activity to a handful of days in Q3, according to the Alight Solutions 401(k) IndexTM. There were just seven above-normal1 days in the entire quarter, including one in early August when Wall Street had its worst day in nearly two years and 401(k) net trading activity was over eight times the average. Four out of every five days in the quarter saw trading favor fixed income over equities.
Third quarter observations:
• Net transfers were 0.35% of balances.
• 51 out of 64 trading days had net trading dollars moving from equities to fixed income.
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Asset classes with most trading inflows in Q3 2024 | Percentage of inflows | Index dollar value ($mil) |
Bond funds | 49% | $460 |
Stable value funds | 29% | $273 |
| Money market funds | 22% | $207 |
Asset classes with most trading outflows in Q3 2024 | Percentage of outflows | Index dollar value ($mil) | |
Company stock | 35% | $331 | |
| 23% | $214 | |
| Large U.S. equity funds | 18% | $173 |
Returns for common indices | Q3 2024 | 2024 YTD |
Bloomberg Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index | 5.20% | 4.45% |
S&P 500 Index | 5.89% | 22.08% |
Russell 2000 Index | 9.27% | 11.17% |
MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Index (net) | 8.06% | 14.21% |
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.
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.
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