401(k) trading activity picked up in January

Amid last month’s volatile markets, 401(k) investors headed toward fixed income and away from equities.

Amid the stock market’s ups and downs in January, 401(k) account holders did their most trading in a year, according to the Alight Solutions 401(k) index, the company said.

The index shows an average of 0.017% of all account balances were traded daily last month, which was the highest level since January 2021.

Last month saw five trading days with above-normal activity, which compares with just three such above-normal trading days in all of 2021.

Alight said that in 13 of the 20 trading days last month, investors favored fixed income over stocks. Inflows during the month headed mainly to stable value funds, bond funds and money market funds, while outflows came from target-date funds, large-cap U.S. equity funds and midcap U.S. equity funds.

[More: Sudden market volatility has advisers preaching calm to newer investors]