Market Insights

Clients are rushing back to exchange-traded funds this month as volatility mounts.

Five of the 10 most heavily traded symbols with TradeStation in October are ETFs. That marks a sharp swing from September, when calm market conditions pushed attention toward single-name equities.

Remember that correlations increase along with volatility because stocks are immune when bears hit the market. That makes traders focus on broad-market indexes and ETFs during times of turbulence.

Here’s a breakdown of the busiest symbols for TradeStation clients so far this month. ETFs are marked with an asterisk (*):

1. Apple (AAPL): The smart-phone giant rose from the No. 2 spot in September.
2. *SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY): The market-tracking fund rose from ninth on the list.
3. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): September’s busiest symbol is No. 3 so far in October.
4. Netflix (NFLX): Earnings lifted the video company from No. 7 to No. 4.
5. Amazon.com (AMZN): The e-commerce giant slipped down one notch.
6. *PowerShares QQQ Trust QQQ: The Nasdaq-tracking fund rose from 12th place in September. It hasn’t been in the top 10 since July.
7. *ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term (UVXY): The market-inverse instrument returned to the top 10 for the first time in seven months, up from No. 25 in September.
8. Nvidia (NVDA): The chip giant inched up from the tenth spot last month.
9. *iPath S&P 500 VIX (VXX): The volatility-tracking fund rose from No. 15 in September.
10. *ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ): The leveraged instrument rose from No. 17 in September.

These companies in September’s top 10 have fallen out of the top 10 so far in October:

• Tilray (TLRY)
• Micron Technology (MU)
• Facebook (FB)
• Tesla Motors (TSLA)