Aug 9 (Reuters) - Retail investors were buyers during

much of the recent rollercoaster in U.S. stock markets, taking

advantage of a sharp fall in popular tech shares, according to

various research reports, although they also showed signs of

caution.

While individual investors may have been swept up in the

giant global stock market selloff on Monday triggered by a wave

of anxiety about economic data and earnings news and exacerbated

by the unwind of yen-funded trades, many continued to buy even

as indexes plunged anywhere from 2.6% to 3.4% in heavy trading.

Vanda Research, a New York-based market research and

analysis firm, found that individual investors caught up in the

market storm remained net buyers of shares of companies like

Nvidia ( NVDA ), Intel ( INTC ) and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD )

. They also directed more buying to an exchange-traded

fund tracking 20-year Treasury bonds.

"There was no retail capitulation," said Marco Iachini,

senior vice president of research at Vanda, who said the data

captures the activity of self-directed individual investors --

those who don't turn to a big brokerage firm, financial adviser

or private bank to handle their trading activity.

"Retail investors continue in their dip-buying spree,"

Iachini said.

Robinhood Markets ( HOOD ) received $1 billion of new cash

from retail investor clients in the first week of August, a

spokesman said, citing data provided by the company's founder,

Vladimir Tenev. Of that, $500 million was deposited to client

accounts during Monday's selloff, he said, compared with a

second-quarter daily average of less than $350 million.

However, the firm's clients were unable to execute orders on

Robinhood during overnight sessions, as Blue Ocean ATS, which

executes those trades, couldn't handle the "extreme demand" from

clients, Trenev told analysts on Robinhood's earnings call on

Thursday.

Blue Ocean didn't respond to requests for comment.

A separate report published by analysts at JP Morgan said

that retail investors were "aggressive net sellers" on Monday,

with most of the selling pressure hitting the market in the

first hour of trading. The bank didn't respond to requests for

comment.

Both Vanda and JPMorgan said retail investors were resolute

buyers during the market's recovery on Tuesday and Wednesday.

But Vanda noted on Thursday that retail investors' interest in

the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF soared during the

recovery, making the ETF the second-most-actively purchased

security after Nvidia ( NVDA ) shares by Thursday morning.

Iachini said that may indicate "mom-and-pop-traders" are

growing more anxious about the outlook for stocks and looking

for a safe haven for some of their holdings.

Alight Solutions, which tracks trading activity in some 2

million 401(k) retirement accounts, found that those investors

it tracks were actively moving assets out of stock funds and

into money markets and fixed-income products, said Rob Austin,

head of research at the firm.

"Trading was about eight times average," Austin said,

although still small in absolute terms, with only 0.1% of the

$200 billion in assets the firm tracks shifted from one

investment strategy to another.