After a volatile first quarter – both in the markets and among participant traders – April turned out to be a very different month.
April was a light trading month for 401(k) investors, according to the Aon Hewitt 401(k) Index. There were no days of “above normal” participant trading activity in the month, as just 0.16% of balances traded in April — down from 0.25% the prior month, and well off the 0.97% year-to-date pace.
A “normal” level of relative transfer activity is when the net daily movement of participants’ balances, as a percent of total 401(k) balances within the Aon Hewitt 401(k) Index, equals between 0.3 times and 1.5 times the average daily net activity of the preceding 12 months.
Most of the transfers went to bond funds (49%), GIC/Stable Value (32%) and money market funds (11%), and came from large U.S. equity funds (25%), company stock funds (20%), international funds (15%) and small U.S. equity funds (14%). Fourteen out of the 21 trading days in April showed more inflows to fixed income.
Target-date funds (40%) and large U.S. equity funds (19%) drew the most contributions during the month.
