Remember last week when software stocks got absolutely demolished? Yeah, well, guess who came rushing back with their wallets open? That’s right—retail traders, aka the people who probably learned about investing from TikTok and Reddit (and honestly, good for them).
JPMorgan just dropped some juicy data about what happened after the great software meltdown of February 2026. Spoiler alert: retail investors did exactly what retail investors do—they bought the dip like it was Black Friday at Best Buy.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Here’s the tea: retail buying hit a year-to-date low on February 5th when everything was on fire. But from February 6th to 11th? These absolute legends came roaring back, buying above their daily average for 2026. And get this—they were mostly buying ETFs instead of individual stocks. Smart move, honestly. Why pick one potentially terrible stock when you can buy a basket of them?
What They Actually Bought
The retail crowd went straight for the good stuff. Microsoft? Yep, they scooped that up (JPMorgan even calls it “AI-Resilient,” which sounds fancy but basically means “probably won’t implode tomorrow”). Palantir and AppLovin were also retail favorites—because nothing says “I understand the market” like buying stocks with names that sound like they’re from a sci-fi movie.
Meanwhile, they were selling Salesforce, Roper Technologies, and Intuit. Apparently, boring enterprise software isn’t as exciting as AI plays. Who could have seen that coming?
The Magnificent Seven Drama
When Amazon and Alphabet had their post-earnings tantrums (because Wall Street got spooked by their AI spending plans), retail traders saw opportunity. They bought Amazon and Alphabet shares while institutional investors were having existential crises about capex budgets. But Meta’s rally? Nah, they sat that one out. Even retail traders have standards, apparently.
The Plot Twist
Here’s where it gets interesting: JPMorgan spotted some stocks where retail traders are buying heavily while hedge funds are shorting aggressively. It’s like a financial Mexican standoff, but with more memes. Hims and Hers (the telehealth company) and MicroStrategy (the Bitcoin-obsessed software company) are caught in this tug-of-war.
This setup is basically a powder keg waiting for a spark. When retail and institutional money disagree this dramatically, things can get… spicy.
The Bottom Line
Retail traders proved once again that they’re not just noise in the market—they’re a force. While everyone else was panicking about AI disruption and software valuations, they calmly stepped in and bought quality names at discount prices.
Sure, they might be learning as they go, but their “buy the dip” mentality during last week’s chaos looks pretty smart in hindsight. Sometimes the best investment strategy is just showing up when everyone else is running for the exits.
Just remember: past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, but it does make for great stories at dinner parties.