For the first time, Winterflood has provided a data-driven insight into the trading activity of UK retail investors. The inaugural Winterflood UK Retail Investor Report, based on unique, proprietary data about retail investment activity in 2025 is now available. The data derives from Winterflood Retail Intelligence (“WRI”), a product developed by an in-house team of data scientists and strategists and based on information from over 150 retail-facing counterparties. WRI provides detailed analytics on over 97% of trade flow from the UK retail market for equities and ETFs.
Our data shows what many know intuitively already: retail investors
have an astute sense of trends and events, and how to navigate them.
Engaging with this segment of the market requires recognising retail
investors for their expertise and considered approach to investing.
Highlights of the report include:
- In 2025, the retail market for equities and ETFs in the UK accounted for £228bn worth of trade flow across 25.9mn trades
- The FTSE 100 index generated £52 billion of retail trade flow in 2025, with 56% of this activity representing outflows (£29.1 billion). Total net outflows amounted to -£6.3 billion. In fact, only 43 (17%), of a possible 253 trading days in 2025, saw net inflows of retail capital. Conversely, net inflows of retail capital into AIM stocks occurred on 202 (80%) of all trading days.
- Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc was the most actively traded stock by retail investors throughout 2025, with a total consideration of £4.5bn, followed by Glencore Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc (£3.7bn and £3.6bn, respectively).
- The growing importance and expertise of retail investors in UK capital markets is reflected in the regulatory changes on the 19th January 2026 making it easier to access debt and equity capital markets.
