Each month, we look at the most popular funds and stocks investors are buying. But what were the most-purchased investments among retail investors in 2024 as a whole?
2024 has been a strong year for global stock markets overall. Interest rates have been falling across most major economies, inflation has continued to cool, and growth has proved fairly resilient. All of this has created a supportive environment for investors.
In particular, US equities have raced ahead. The S&P 500 is up almost 24% so far this year, at the time of writing. This helps explain why US equity ETFs feature among the most-bought funds.
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Politics has been a big theme too, with over half the world going to the polls in 2024. In the UK, voters elected the first Labour government in 14 years. Across the pond, Donald Trump will be back in office for the second time after winning the 2024 US election.
As investors navigated this environment, they loaded up on some familiar favourites (Big Tech) while also taking advantage of some more tactical opportunities, according to data from investment platform AJ Bell.
One such example is MicroStrategy, the fourth bestselling stock on AJ Bell’s platform last year. This tech company owns a huge amount of Bitcoin, so investors loaded up on it in the aftermath of the US election as the Bitcoin price surged.
“Bitcoin cannot be held in an ISA or pension so investors found alternative ways to get exposure via listed companies,” says Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.
“The two most popular routes among AJ Bell customers were shares in MicroStrategy, which has a large investment in Bitcoin and whose share price is highly linked to the crypto’s value, and Bitcoin miner CleanSpark,” he adds.
After more than doubling in value between 5 and 20 November, MicroStrategy has been on a downward trend over the past month – a sign that yesterday’s hottest stocks are not necessarily tomorrow’s winners. We share five stock ideas for 2025 in a separate piece.
Most popular stocks
Investors won’t be surprised to see Nvidia top the list. It has delivered a whopping 167% in share price returns so far this year, continually beating its own forecasts. Investors have come to expect a lot from the stock, though, meaning the potential for disappointment is growing.
When it announces its next results in February, Nvidia expects its revenues to grow 7% quarter-on-quarter and 70% year-on-year. As we argued in a recent MoneyWeek piece, this is well below the triple digit numbers investors have come to expect.
As well as US tech companies, investors showed some love to the domestic stock market, loading up on shares in BP, Legal & General, Phoenix and M&G. All four of these stocks are in the red so far this year when it comes to share price returns. It is possible investors were tempted by the dividends on offer, though.
“Legal & General, Phoenix and M&G all trade on a prospective dividend yield above 9% while BP yields 6.2%,” says Coatsworth. “Investors looking for income are naturally drawn to either the highest yields or names that have earned a reputation as being reliable dividend payers over the years.”
Alternatively, long-term investors could be hoping to capitalise on valuation opportunities. The UK equity market has been out of favour since Brexit and is often considered cheap compared to its US and global counterparts. Some investors are snapping up shares at a discount and hoping for a rerating.
| Rank | Stock |
| 1 | Nvidia |
| 2 | BP |
| 3 | Legal & General |
| 4 | MicroStrategy |
| 5 | Phoenix |
| 6 | M&G |
| 7 | Berkshire Hathaway |
| 8 | Applied Nutrition |
| 9 | Microsoft |
| 10 | CleanSpark |
Most popular funds
MoneyWeek also asked AJ Bell to share some of their bestselling funds and trusts. Some notable trends emerged, including an interest in money-market funds, global equity trackers, and US equity ETFs.
Two money market funds that featured included the Royal London Short-Term Money Market Fund and the Vanguard Sterling Short-Term Money Market Fund. Although interest rates are now on a downward trajectory, they were at a 16-year high for the first seven months of the year. Presumably investors were looking to cash in on this environment while it lasted, while exposing themselves to relatively low-risk investments.
Two S&P 500 trackers also feature in the top 10 ETFs, including the iShares S&P 500 and the Vanguard Funds S&P 500 UCITS ETF. It is unsurprising given the strong bull run US equities have experienced this year.
Global equity trackers have also proved popular as investors look to invest in diversified opportunities across the world, while minimising costs. The Fidelity Index World and the HSBC FTSE All-World Index Fund both feature in the platform’s list of the bestselling funds.
Finally, the bestselling trust was the City of London Investment Trust, which invests in UK equities and is often bought by investors looking to generate income. The trust currently offers a yield of around 5%.
The trust’s latest factsheet (October) shows it has beaten the benchmark over the one, three, five and 10-year periods (NAV returns). The trust is also trading at a slight discount.
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