Welcome to the July 2024 edition of Sharesight’s monthly trading snapshot for Australian investors, where we look at the top 20 trades made by Australian Sharesight users.

You may notice our trading snapshot looks different this month, as we have updated the design and are no longer highlighting the top 20 ASX trades. Instead, we are presenting the top trades by Australian investors, regardless of market, because this is a better reflection of how Australians are actually investing. You will also notice that we highlight the top 20 trades (across all asset classes), as well as the top 20 stocks, which allows us to observe the broader investment trends by Australian Sharesight users, while also giving us an opportunity to zoom into the most popular stocks and the market-moving news behind them.

Top trades July 2024

This month, the top trades were led by Vanguard’s MSCI Index International Shares (ASX: VGS) and Australian Shares Index (ASX: VAS) ETFs, followed by the iShares S&P 500 (ASX: IVV) ETF. It was a strong month for ETF trading overall, with 12 of the top 20 trades consisting of ETFs. It’s also worth noting that the vast majority of these trades are buy trades, which is to be expected in such an ETF-heavy snapshot. Overall, this snapshot suggests that many Australian Sharesight users are employing a long-term buy-and-hold strategy.

Most-traded stocks July 2024

This month’s top-traded stocks were led primarily by buy trades in BHP (ASX: BHP), which has seen its share price plummet throughout July, with a lot of opportunistic Sharesight users choosing to buy the dip. The top trades were followed by Droneshield (ASX: DRO), which has also experienced tumbling prices throughout the month, with Sharesight users roughly split between buying and selling the stock.

It should be noted that the assets in our trading snapshots are ordered by the number of Sharesight users trading that asset, while the size of the bars indicate the actual trade volume. So while there are more customers trading in BHP, the volume of Droneshield trades is higher, meaning that while there are fewer people trading in Droneshield, they are making more trades.

Let’s look at some of the market-moving news behind some of this month’s top stocks:

BHP (ASX: BHP)

• BHP and Lundin Mining to join forces to buy Filo Corp for C$4.5 billion
• Share price drops despite proposed Filo Corp acquisition, as investors sell off due to commodity price slump
• BHP share price has plummeted 16% in 2024

Droneshield (ASX: DRO)

• Droneshield share price plummets, with investors turned off by quarter-on-quarter decline in revenue
• Share price down 43% in just over a week

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA)

• NVIDIA among tech companies using controversial methods to train their AI models
• NVIDIA and Apple lead tech slump as Nasdaq records worst day since 2022

Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS)

• Woodside spends AU$1.35 billion on Tellurian acquisition as part of plan to become a ‘global LNG powerhouse’
• Reports 2% quarter-on-quarter revenue growth in Q2 2024

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA)

• Tesla partners with Zurich to deliver insurance to its Australian customers
• Analysts impressed by Tesla’s latest update to its Full Self-Driving tech
• Tesla share price rises on newfound analyst optimism

Fortescue Metals (ASX: FMG)

• Undisclosed vendor sells AU$1.9 billion stake in Fortescue Metals
• Announces plan to commission 100MW solar farm in the Pilbara
• Fortescue plans to grow energy spending despite job cuts