Investors Are Scared, but Not Selling—These Stocks Are Keeping Them in the Market

According to the recent survey by its readers in Investopedia, the cruel sales of April about the tariff policies of Trump administration have eroded the investor trust in capital markets about the tariff policies of Trump administration. Despite this, the survey also revealed that most of the investors continue to continue their positions.

The survey conducted from April 12 to April 15, 2025 revealed that 73% of the respondents say they are at least “somewhat worried” about selling recently, while 44% reported to be “extremely worried”.

Investor concern about recent market volatility has been at its highest level since 2021. In fact, more than half of individual investors reported that they reduce the stock market under this administration, due to tariff policy uncertainty and a rapid improvement in capital markets.

Investors are concerned about inflation, US China relations, recession

Inflation is at the top of the list of intensity of the readers of Investopedia, their concerns about the effects of the global tariff imposed by the White House are bound by their concerns, and new tariffs on semiconductor and copper to be effective in the coming months. American relations with China are also a top concern given the growth of tariffs between the two countries. Responsibilities are in such a way that a trade war will cause a recession, and possibly a global financial crisis and bear market.

Retail investors are afraid, but not selling

While the readers of Investopedia may be most concerned in four years, most say they are not making major changes in their allocation amidst instability. Only 17% say they took money out of the stock market, and cash, money market funds and CDs.

More than half, or 58%, they say they took advantage of the recession, showing 32% that they used dollars in the market or in specific shares. Only 6% states that they are shortening the stock market to try to take advantage of the potential forward decline.

Investors are still hopeful about their favorite stock

Around 30% of investors did not give up hope on their favorite shares, despite many of them, including Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), NVDIA (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), and Palantir (Pltr), which are deep in the bear market area. Vandtrack’s data showed a record-damping flow from retail investors after the week after April 2- the White House on 3 April with $ 3 billion in pure purchases, what to say to “Liberation Day”, Wandtrack began to collect this data in 2014.

Research from Bank of America also revealed that its customers were pure buyers of $ 8 billion price during the week of initial tariff announcements. Amidst the great financial crisis, the fourth largest weekly flow in the Bank of America data since 2008 was the wealthy flow.

Readers still prefer American shares as the safest bet

Despite their confidence in capital markets under this administration, the readers of Investopedia still favor American shares as the safest place to invest their money in the next five years. Given their experience with instability and other periods of economic policy, many people may assume that the stock market and its inner companies will eventually accommodate these new policies, and resume their ability to increase the profit and reward shareholders.

4 out of 1 readers say that we are entering or already in recession

The drum growing around a possible recession has also worked loudly over the past several weeks with a warning of JP Morgan Chess (JPM), Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase (JPM), and Larry Fin, Blackrock (BLK), a serious economic recession warning.

The increasing number of our readers agrees, one of the four indicates that we are entering, or already in a recession. About 40% say that we are likely to enter the recession in the next three to six months. However, only time will tell whether the predictions of these investors are true or not.