Canada (EN)
Retirement investors took a cautious approach to trading in October, according to the Alight Solutions 401(k) IndexTM. There were no above-normal1 days, but trading activity increased slightly from previous months. Trades favored fixed income, with bond funds accounting for nearly half of all inflows.
October observations: |
|
| |
| |
The Alight Solutions 401(k) Index statistics for the month of October: |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
Inflows and outflows during the month of October:
• Trading inflows mainly went to bond, stable value and money market funds. • Outflows were primarily from company stock, large U.S. equity and small U.S. equity funds. |
Asset classes with most trading inflows in October | Percentage of inflows | Index dollar value ($mil) |
| Bond funds | 48% | $260 |
| Stable value funds | 15% | $82 |
| Money markets funds | 15% | $79 |
Asset classes with most trading outflows in October | Percentage of inflows | Index dollar value ($mil) |
| Company Stocks | 43% | $233 |
| Large U.S. equity funds | 34% | $183 |
| Small U.S. equity funds | 13% | $69 |
October investment portfolios: |
|
|
Asset classes with largest percentage of total balance at the end of October | Percentage of balance | Index dollar value ($mil) |
Target date funds2 | 31% | $91,627 |
Large U.S. equity funds | 30% | $89,851 |
Company stock funds | 7% | $20,823 |
Asset classes with most contributions in October | Percentage of contributions | Index dollar value($mil) |
Target date funds2 | 50% | $637 |
Large U.S. equity funds | 22% | $274 |
International equity funds | 7% | $88 |
Returns for common indices | October | 2025 YTD |
Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index | 0.62% | 6.80% |
S&P 500 Index | 2.34% | 17.52% |
Russell 2000 Index | 1.81% | 12.39% |
MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Index (net) | 2.02% | 28.57% |
1 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 Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™, equals between 0.3 times and 1.5 times the average daily net activity of the preceding 12 months. A “high” relative transfer activity day is when the net daily movement exceeds two times the average daily net activity. A “moderate” relative transfer activity day is when the net daily movement is between 1.5 and 2 times the average daily net activity of the preceding 12 months.
2 Target date funds also include the amounts in target risk funds. The amount in the target risk funds is less than 10% of the total.
Want to know more?
Check out our previous reports
