What Australians have been buying and selling in 2026

**Bryce** (0:00)
This was bigger than people buying banks. It was bigger than crypto. It was on par with the entire allocation to just broad global equities. So this was hot.

**Ren** (0:08)
That is people with a long-term time horizon and an unconstrained investment menu saying, give me all the leverage. Yeah.

**Bryce** (0:17)
This episode is proudly brought to you by Betashares Direct. And given that we are part of the Betashares Group, we have been given access to the buying and selling data on Betashares Direct so we can draw some insight into how we've been investing.

**Ren** (0:30)
They've given us high level aggregate data. We should be very clear.

**Bryce** (0:34)
Yes.

**Ren** (0:34)
From the 1st of January to the 13th of May. So almost half a year worth of data. And it gives us an insight into how everyday Australians have been reacting to the flurry of noise that we've been hit with this year, from the war in Iran and straight up for moves being closed to inflation ticking up here at home and everything in between. It's been a volatile year for Australian investors. And we want to unpack what's hot and what's not, or particularly what's hot, what's being bought. And then we're going to unpack some key themes that emerge from the data that have been really strong in the first half of the year and we can chat about whether we think they will tail off or whether they'll continue for the second half of the year. Let's start with what has been most popular. I think that's a good place to start. Why don't you tell us Bryce, what's hot?

**Bryce** (1:26)
So this is on value, by value. Number one is DHHF, the all-in-one global growth, global diversified. Number two, A200, ASX200. Three is BGBL, the global index. Number four, NDQ, Nasdaq. Five is GHHF, the geared version of DHHF. Number six is Vanguard's high yield, VHY.
Number seven is IVV, the S&P 500
Number eight is ETPMAG. That's a silver ETF. And we'll get into a little bit of the themes later on. Number nine is the geared ETF, GEAR. And number ten is eCred, E-C-R-D.

**Ren** (2:05)
Nice. So obviously this data is from Betashares Direct. And so the ETF is in their skew towards Betashares. But I think there's some interesting themes that emerge that are applicable across the investing landscape.

**Bryce** (2:18)
So any sort of early takeaways there?

**Ren** (2:20)
Not surprising. I think the fact that global diversified indexes are at the top of the list is no surprise.
In ASX 200, ETF being at the top, again, no surprise. What we can see as we go a little bit down the list is that Australians are embracing leverage. So G-H-H-F, GEAR and eCred are all leveraged ETFs. So three of the top ten by buying volume. And then there's also an interest in income that we sort of see in the equity mates community and it's reflected here with Vanguard's high-yield ETF coming in at number six.

**Bryce** (2:56)
Yeah. And eCred?

**Ren** (2:58)
And eCred. Yes.

**Bryce** (2:59)
True.

**Ren** (2:59)
How could I forget that one? I own it.
Any takeaways for you?

**Bryce** (3:03)
I just love that they're like the Rockstar ETF. It's where you want to start.

**Ren** (3:08)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're not like...

**Bryce** (3:10)
It doesn't look like there's anything too fancy going on. We're not trying to play too many thematics here. It's just like we've had turmoil, we've had market chaos and we're just sticking to the guns.

**Ren** (3:19)
We'll get to the sexy stuff, all the spiciest stuff, the themes later. But yeah, I think you're right. Bedrock positions. We're going to talk about buying patterns and buying the dip a bit later. But I imagine some of these bedrock positions were certainly added to when the market started to dip.

**Bryce** (3:35)
Yeah.

**Ren** (3:36)
Let's move to the individual stocks because there's some interesting names there. Now, for context on Betashares Direct, you can buy the top 400 Aussie stocks. So there's some big names and some not so big names there. I'll go down the list of the top 10 by buying value. So, CSL tops the list, number one. Woodside Energy, then DroneShield, put a pin in that. WiseTech, Pro Medicus, 40X, Zip, Xero, BHP and Cochlear.
What stands out there?

**Bryce** (4:10)
I mean, there's definitely an AI software theme there. You've got WiseTech, you've got Pro Medicus, Xero, 40X. I think what's noticeable as well is it looks like people are trying to be taking action on stocks that have been down.

**Ren** (4:23)
I mean, this is a...

**Bryce** (4:24)