These were the most traded stocks and options heading into Christmas, Interactive Brokers says

Published Wed, Dec 27 20234:03 PM ESTUpdated Thu, Dec 28 202311:55 AM EST

Market volume may be dormant this time of the year, but some retail traders snapped up some stocks and options in recent days. Interactive Brokers on Tuesday compiled a list of its 25 most traded stocks and options between Dec. 18 and Dec. 22. Topping the list, perhaps unsurprisingly, is Tesla . The data shows retail investors put in more than 163,000 orders on shares of the electric vehicle maker. Around 83,000 of those orders were buys, while about 80,000 were sales. They also put in more than 62,000 Tesla options orders. "It's perpetually No. 1," said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. "It's a testament to the mindshare that Tesla has among investors of all types, maybe with the exception of pensions. But any individual investor, any small institution, it's become the default trading vehicle." The stock has been on fire this year, surging more than 100%. Shares were hammered in 2022, dropping 65%. Other heavily traded stocks include Nvidia , crypto mining company Marathon Digital and Advanced Micro Devices . Traders placed more than 47,000 Nvidia buy orders and about 41,000 sales. Marathon saw nearly 33,000 stock buy orders, with more than 29,000 sales. As for AMD, traders placed 26,093 buys and 24,760 sales. They also traded more than 32,000 Nvidia options orders, along with 14,694 for Marathon and over 16,000 for AMD. "Marathon, I was shocked to see it jump that high," Sosnick said. "It's typically Tesla, Nvidia, AMD and the QQQ and TQQQ … because our traders like the action." The Invesco QQQ ETF tracks the Nasdaq-100 index, while the ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ) offers three times leveraged exposure to the Nasdaq-100's daily performance. These trades come as the S & P 500 tries to reach a record in the final week of the year. The broad market index is less than 0.5% below its all-time closing high reached in January 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to record levels earlier this month. Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect the data refers to stock and options orders.