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In Review | Stocks | Technology
Tesla Was TradeStation’s Most Active Stock in 2020 as Electric Cars Went Mainstream
David Russell
December 31, 2020

Electric cars remained a major theme at TradeStation in December. Traders also returned to established large-cap technology stocks.

Apple (AAPL), the world’s most valuable company, rose one spot as investors focused on the potential for an iPhone upgrade cycle. Large names like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Alibaba (BABA), the sixth-most valuable company, returned to the top 10. They displaced more idiosyncratic stocks like General Electric (GE) and XPeng (XPEV).

Here’s the complete list of most popular symbols in December:

  1. Tesla (TSLA): The electric-car maker rose one position to reclaim the top spot.
  2. Nio (NIO): The Chinese electric-car maker inched down from No. 1 in November.
  3. Apple (AAPL): The iPhone maker rose one spot from the previous month.
  4. Amazon.com (AMZN): The e-commerce giant slid from third place.
  5. Moderna (MRNA): The vaccine developer surged from 15th in November.
  6. Palantir (PLTR): The software maker rose one position from the previous month.
  7. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): The semiconductor company returned to the top 10, rebounding from 13th in November.
  8. Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ): The Nasdaq-tracking ETF rose from tenth place.
  9. Alibaba (BABA): The Chinese e-commerce giant leaped from 20th in November.
  10. ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ): The leveraged Nasdaq-tracking fund dropped four places.

The following symbols exited the top 10 in December:

  • Xpeng (XPEV): The Chinese electric-car maker dropped from eighth in November to 24th in December.
  • General Electric (GE): The industrial stock dropped from ninth in November to 19th in December.

These were the most active symbols for the whole year:

  1. Tesla (TSLA) rose from No. 4 in 2019.
  2. Amazon.com (AMZN) rose from No. 6 in 2019.
  3. Apple (AAPL) inched down from No. 2 in 2019.
  4. SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) dropped from No. 1 in 2019.
  5. Nio (NIO) rose from No. 40 in 2019.
  6. ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ) rose from No. 8 in 2019.
  7. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) rose from No. 9 in 2019.
  8. General Electric (GE) rose from No. 18 in 2019.
  9. Boeing (BA): The aerospace company rose from No. 15 in 2019.
  10. Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) rose from No. 12 in 2019.

The following stocks exited the top 10 in 2020:

  • Streaming-video stock Roku (ROKU) slid from No. 3 to 17th.
  • Streaming-video stock Netflix (NFLX) slid from No. 7 to 18th.
  • Semiconductor stock Nvidia (NVDA) slid from No. 5 to 12.
Tags: AAPL | AMD | AMZN | BA | BABA | GE | MRNA | NFLX | NIO | NVDA | PLTR | QQQ | ROKU | TQQQ | TSLA | XPEV

About the author

David Russell
David Russell is Global Head of Market Strategy at TradeStation. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience as a financial journalist and analyst, his background includes equities, emerging markets, fixed-income and derivatives. He previously worked at Bloomberg News, CNBC and E*TRADE Financial. Russell systematically reviews countless global financial headlines and indicators in search of broad tradable trends that present opportunities repeatedly over time. Customers can expect him to keep them appraised of sector leadership, relative strength and the big stories – especially those overlooked by other commentators. He’s also a big fan of generating leverage with options to limit capital at risk.

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