Individual Investors Proceed To The Exits

With US equities getting sucked into the global equity rout, individual investors are heading for the exits, although given the weakness, we’re a bit surprised it hasn’t been more of a rush. According to the weekly sentiment survey from AAII, bullish sentiment saw another decline this week falling from just under 34% to 27.97%. That’s low enough to rank as the fourth weakest reading in bullish sentiment this year. This week’s survey results also probably don’t fully take into account the weakness equities saw on Wednesday either, so barring a big v-recovery in the next several days, we could even see a weaker reading next week.

On the bearish side of the ledger, negative sentiment rose by a similar amount that bullish sentiment declined, jumping from 35.0% up to 41.0%. That’s the highest reading since the last week of June, right before the July 4th rally, and the third highest reading in the bearish sentiment of the year.