Retail investors' market involvement is at record highs: Penny stocks, a proxy for retail activity, reflected a record 47.4% of the total market volume on Thursday, according to Goldman Sachs. This surpassed the previous all-time high of ~45.0% seen in May 2024. This was also more than TWICE as high as levels seen in the retail trading frenzy in 2020. Interestingly, ~20% of trading volume in stocks worth less than 1.00 took place during pre-market hours. Meanwhile, individual investors' share of the options market hit ~18.5% last week, one of the highest readings on record, according to JP Morgan. Retail investors are still buying.