Retail investors outperform institutional investors for two consecutive months, with May’s excess returns hitting a record high of 16 percentage points

Odaily Odaily News: The Kobeissi Letter posted on platform X that in May, the stock portfolio most favored by retail investors outperformed the stock portfolio most favored by mutual funds by 16 percentage points, marking the largest single-month gap since data became available in 2018. This retail-favored stock portfolio encompasses large-cap tech stocks, including the "Magnificent 7" and semiconductor stocks. In the previous month of April, retail investors had already achieved an excess return of 14 percentage points. The combined total over these two consecutive months set the largest historical gap, surpassing the previous record of 13 percentage points set during the early days of the meme stock frenzy at the end of 2020. During the same period, the total amount retail investors spent on semiconductor options contracts reached 4.9 times the historical monthly average, hitting a new all-time high and exceeding the previous record set in March 2024 by approximately 25%.