Self-directed brokerage account participants were bullish on equities in the second quarter, with nearly half of them putting their money into equities. A new report from Charles Schwab says 47% put new assets into equity markets in the second quarter of this year, mostly through mutual funds, compared to 30% in the previous quarter.
And while mutual funds continue to be the top asset allocation for self-directed brokerage account participants, accounting for 39% of all portfolios, they did decrease by 2% from last year.
“There has been a lot of action overseas due to the turmoil in Greece and China, but the U.S. economy has continued along its slow growth path,” says the report. “These international factors and also the Fed’s decision about when to raise interest rates will likely continue to influence investor sentiment.”
The report, which measures trends from about 170,000 retirement plan participants with balances between $5,000 and $2 million in their Schwab Personal Choice Retirement Accounts, shows allocations as:
- 39% mutual funds
- 28% equities
- 17% cash
- 14% exchange-traded funds
- 2% fixed income
Also, the average account holder balance was $206,564 representing a growth of 3.8% from June of last year.
Within mutual funds, investors are putting about 30% of their savings into large-cap funds followed by 19% in taxable bond funds, 16% in international funds, 14% in hybrid funds and 13% into small-cap funds.
Investors choosing ETFs are putting their money mostly into U.S equities (45%), international equity (17%), commodity funds (4%) and international fixed income (1%).
Joel Kranc is a freelance writer based in Toronto.
