Self-directed brokerage account balances with Charles Schwab took a beating in the second quarter, as high inflation, sharp increases in interest rates and ongoing geopolitical unrest continues to fuel market volatility.

The average account balance across all participant accounts was $283,485 for the second quarter ending June 30, an 18.58% decrease from last year and a 14.62% drop from the first quarter of this year, according to the company’s SDBA indicators report.

As in the previous quarter, equities were the most popular investment option, accounting for 33% of the assets in SBDAs; mutual funds accounted for 28% of the assets, followed by exchange-traded funds at 20.9% and cash at 15%. Consistent with the previous quarter and similar to last year, participants on average held 13 positions in their accounts.

The largest equity sector holding continued to be information technology with 29.1%. Apple remained the top equity holding with 12%, followed by Tesla with 8.1% and Amazon with 4.4%. Microsoft (3.4%) and NVIDIA (1.9%) rounded out the top five equity holdings.  

The largest allocations to mutual funds were in large-cap stock funds (33.9%), followed by taxable bond (20%) and international (14.2%) funds. The most popular allocations for ETFs were U.S. equity, accounting for 50.9%, followed by fixed income with 13.8%, international equity with 13.1% and sector ETFs with 12%.

The report showed advised accounts held higher average account balances compared to non-advised accounts ($460,376 versus $240,974).

Gen X had the highest participation in SDBA accounts with about 46%, followed by baby boomers (30%) and millennials (19%), the report showed. Boomers boasted the highest balances with an average of $452,381. Gen X followed with $252,477 and millennials had $85,121.

The report also noted that trading volumes were lower at an average of 11 trades per account compared to 14 last quarter and a year ago.

Charles Schwab's SDBA Indicators Report collected data from about 184,000 retirement plan participants with balances between $5,000 and $10 million in their Schwab Personal Choice Retirement Account. Data is extracted quarterly on all accounts that are open as of quarter-end and meet the balance criteria, the company noted.