Risk, returns & timeframes illustration
8 min read
December 20, 2023
by
Belinda Nash

Hatch investors' 2023 Year in Review

It’s (nearly) a wrap on investing in 2023 and despite turbulence and a tough economy, it seems many Hatch investors saw plenty of wins in their portfolio this year. Year-to-date the average returns for Hatch investors’ top 10 company stocks grew more than 110%. So, what else set new benchmarks in the US share markets?
2023 Hatch Year in Review
8 min read
December 20, 2023
by
Belinda Nash

Hatch investors' 2023 Year in Review

It’s (nearly) a wrap on investing in 2023 and despite turbulence and a tough economy, it seems many Hatch investors saw plenty of wins in their portfolio this year. Year-to-date the average returns for Hatch investors’ top 10 company stocks grew more than 110%. So, what else set new benchmarks in the US share markets?
8 min read
December 20, 2023
by
Belinda Nash

Hatch investors' 2023 Year in Review

It’s (nearly) a wrap on investing in 2023 and despite turbulence and a tough economy, it seems many Hatch investors saw plenty of wins in their portfolio this year. Year-to-date the average returns for Hatch investors’ top 10 company stocks grew more than 110%. So, what else set new benchmarks in the US share markets?
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The year started with a bang and so did you. 🎆 You notched up your biggest reactions to posts in our Hatch Investor’s Club on 2 January, jumping in with 300 comments and 714 reactions, and you posted the most for the year on 17 January. 

Why the 17th? 📅 The S&P 500 closed at its highest since 13 December 2022, rising from its October 2022 slump - the lowest it had been since November 2020 - and the Nasdaq reached the highest it had been since 14 December the previous year. 

Together, you surpassed more than 1 million views of our weekly newsletter The Fry Up. That’s a tonne of you schooling up on the big news on Wall Street each week. 

Plus more than 4,300 of you submitted feedback in our newsletter reader survey, with more than 2,000 of you sending in fresh name ideas, from which we chose the one that sizzled the most. 🍳

The lingering will-it-or-won’t-it US recession chat seems not to have phased you either, with a 300% increase in sign-ups for our Getting Started Course in the last quarter of 2023.

Ready for more of your investing year in stats? In we go!

A Kiwi fave was one of your most traded stocks 🚀

You know how to pick the US share market movers ‘n’ shakers. 🎯 Hatch investors love love tech stocks and the Nasdaq stock exchange where they live, work and play. And if you weren’t buying tech, you were buying stock from companies that definitely rely on tech. 

Your 10 most traded company stocks in 2023 were: 

Seems you’re playing the long game and not letting emotions drive your investing

6 US stock top performers were in your portfolios 📈

Your top stocks matched the best of the Nasdaq 100 - up 43.35% year-to-date (YTD) -  the S&P 500 - up 24.19% YTD - and the DJIA - up 13.31% YTD. 🙌 Six of the top performing company stocks on the US share markets were popular with Hatch investors.

In order of the largest gains, the top 6 that matched were:

  1. Nvidia (NVDA) stocks have soared 239.43% year-to-date (YTD) following their giant year long stock leap
  2. Meta (META) has grown 191.14% YTD
  3. AMD (AMD) has climbed 116.38% YTD
  4. Tesla (TSLA) has made a 2023 comeback of 108.82% YTD
  5. Microsoft (MSFT) has leaped 55.64% YTD
  6. Apple (AAPL) has held onto their US$3 trillion mega cap and is up 51.57% for the year.

And as AI dominated headlines this year, the world’s biggest tech companies just got bigger!

* Data recorded 10am 20 December 2023 NZDT (after US markets closed)

A 100-year-old fund manager was your #1 📈

Vanguard was your top choice ETF portfolio manager. 🥇 Four of the 10 most traded ETFs in 2023 were managed by the near-century old Vanguard. And like the S&P 500, which has climbed 23.35% year-to-date (YTD), some of your top ETFs have made these exceptional returns - the stand-out being ProShares UltraPro QQQ ETF (TQQQ), which has soared 191.2% so far in 2023

Your 10 most traded ETF stocks in 2023 were:

  • Vanguard S&P 500 (VOO)
  • Vanguard US Total Stock Market Index (VTI)
  • Vanguard S&P 500 Growth (VOOG)
  • ProShares UltraPro QQQ ETF (TQQQ)
  • Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT)
  • ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ (SQQQ)
  • Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF (SOXL)
  • Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (QQQ)
  • US Dividend Equity ETF Schwab (SCHD)
  • S&P 500 ETF Trust SPDR (SPY)

How can you make money from ETFs vs company stocks?

You kept your eggs in several baskets 🪺

Diversity is still your preferred investing style. 🐣 You may have hearted companies more this year but you still love ETFs. On average, in your portfolio you hold three company stocks and one ETF. We love that you’re keeping up those diversification vibes!

You were up with the birds 🐦

Thirsty Thursdays are not only popular to catch up with mates. 🍻 The day after Hump Day, aka Thursday, was your most popular day to buy and sell shares. And plenty of you were night owls or early birds too, with midnight and 7am tied equal for the two most popular times to buy corresponding with 6am and 1pm on Wall Street. Twoot woo.🦉

You got down in da Club 🕺

You’re a chatty bunch! 💬 Investor bonds (as opposed to these kinds of bonds) were strong again in 2023, with you posting more than 1,250 times in your Hatch investors’ Club. You were the busiest during June and July but posted the most on 17 January, followed closely by the start of the US summer on 9 June and 15 June. ☀️

More than 9,000 of you - nearly half of you in the group - were keyboard worriers on 17 March. 👩‍💻 Why? ‘Wall Street’s week of turmoil’ following the Silicon Valley Bank collapse

Your chattiest day each week was Friday, and you were busiest in the club between 11am and midday, then again later between 7pm and 10pm. You voted more than 3,000 times in our polls, and we kept you exclusive too, with around 1,000 people who weren’t Hatch investors trying to get into the club. Don’t settle for dull, join your fellow investors in the chat.

You’ve amped up your 2FA protection 🕶️

You’ve acted on global cybersecurity warnings. 🔒 Weak passwords can be cracked instantly. And it takes just 79 minutes for criminal hackers to cause serious damage by hacking into accounts that hold your money - into accounts like Hatch. 😬 But when passwords are long, strong, contain a mix of capital letters, characters and numbers, and have 2FA set up, they’re much harder to hack and may result in ‘a 50% decrease in accounts being compromised,’ according to Google Account Security and Safety director, Guemmy Kim. Don’t be a statistic, get your 2FA sorted today.

DIY’s in your DNA 🔨

You got hands-on with your Hatch account. 🧰 More than 25,000 of you went DIY when it comes to taking charge of your Hatch account this year, reading more than 93,000 Help Centre articles. Naturally, some enquiries needed extra care, so our epic customer service crew answered your more than 13,000 queries! We’re stoked that the majority of you left happy, giving us a 90% customer service satisfaction score this year. It seems some of you caught Christmas vibes early, generously gift-wrapping a nearly 96% satisfaction rating for us so far this December. 🎁 Stuck on something Hatch related? You might find your answer here.

Belinda Nash
Finance writer
Linkedin

We’re not financial advisors and Hatch news is for your information only. However dazzling our writing, none of it is a recommendation to invest in any of the companies or funds mentioned. If you want support before making any investment decisions, consider seeking financial advice from a licensed provider. We’ve done our best to ensure all information is current when we pushed ‘publish’ on this article. And of course, with investing, your money isn’t guaranteed to grow and there’s always a risk you might lose money.

Join the Kiwis who are hatching their tomorrow and have invested more than $1 billion with Hatch.

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