- Abdulaziz Djalilov: Westminster International University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
- Numan Ülkü: Westminster International University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
This article presents the first study of Russian individual investors' aggregate equity trading behavior using novel data from Moscow Exchange, with a focus on the COVID-19 episode. Aggregate Russian individual bought the dip during the COVID crash in March-April 2020. While this can be accounted for by their regular contrarian trading traits, they remained as net buyers until the market fully recovered, a sign of sophistication in striking contrast to views that characterized individual investors as noise traders. Our analysis suggests that this outcome was driven by a combination of regular contrarian traits and a unique positive shock to individual investor demand for equities, with weaker evidence of exploiting a negative bubble.