Individual Investors Warming Up To Stocks

Stop the presses! Bullish sentiment on the part of individual investors is currently at its highest level since the start of the year. In this week’s sentiment survey from AAII, bullish sentiment increased from 39.6% up to 45.1%. That’s the first 40%+ reading in six weeks and the highest level since the first week of January. Even with the increase, though, bullish sentiment has now still been below 50% for a record 148 straight weeks!

Bearish sentiment dropped nearly 4.5% percentage points to 25.57%. While bullish sentiment has been subdued for some time now, it’s not as if bearish sentiment has been elevated. For example, this week’s print is the sixth time in the last eight weeks that bearish sentiment has been below 30%. 

What has been a clear trend for several weeks now is that investors continue to get off the fence. After a recent peak of over 43% at the end of June, neutral sentiment has been steadily trending lower, and at the current level of 26.4% is now at its lowest level since early March.