Jump In Investor Bullish Sentiment But Remains Below Long Run Average

Yesterday, the American Association of Individual Investors released their Sentiment Survey results for the week ending 7/19/2017. These results show individual investors’ bullish sentiment increased 7.3 percentage points to 35.5%. This is the highest reading since early May when bullish sentiment was reported at 38.1%. This jump in bullish sentiment still has the level below the long run average of 38.5%. The increase in the bullish reading came almost equally from a reduction in those investors indicating they were bearish and those reporting a neutral view of the markets.

This is a contrarian measure and remains at a fairly low level. On the other hand, the market continues to achieve record highs with very little downside volatility. A pullback of 5-10% would not be a surprise given the market’s recent strength.