Over 93% of investors lost money last month: Openfolio
It wasn’t just you. Virtually all investors lost money during the atrocious month of January.
Over 93% of investors were in the red last month, according to data shared exclusively with CNNMoney by Openfolio, an app that allows people to see how their investment portfolios stack up with others.
Deep fears about the crash in oil prices and turbulence in China took hold of the stock market in January. The Dow lost 5.5% of its value, the index’s deepest monthly drop since the market freakout in August.
But the typical investor fared even worse, losing 6.3% of his or her portfolio in January, according to Openfolio.
“A miserable start to the year” is how Bespoke Investment Group summed it up to clients on Monday. “Thankfully for investors, January 2016 is now in the history books,” the firm wrote.
Some investors did manage to elude the carnage in the stock market — by going to cash. Openfolio said those who made money in January held an average of 19% in cash, compared with 9% for those who lost money.
It’s the latest sign that global economy worries are pushing investors away from risky assets like stocks.
Investors yanked $2.9 billion from U.S. stocks last week, marking the seventh week of outflows out of the past eight, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Emerging markets, which have been in turmoil for months, experienced a 13th straight week of outflows of $1.2 billion.
Money is fleeing to safe haven government bonds. For instance, municipal bonds have enjoyed 19 straight weeks of inflows, BofA said.
GoPro (GPRO, Tech30) is probably the opposite of a safe haven. The extremely volatile yet popular stock plunged 36% in January, making it the month’s biggest wealth destroyer, according to Openfolio. Other popular stocks that seriously dented portfolios in January include Twitter (TWTR, Tech30) (-27%), Tesla (TSLA) (-20%) and Bank of America (BAC) (-16%).
