The title of this post contains probably the three words investors who have been bullish want to hear the least. After 34 straight weeks where the weekly AAII sentiment survey showed levels of bullish sentiment below 40%, this week’s survey showed a surge in optimism as the percentage of investors putting themselves in the bullish camp rose from 29.28% up to 41.29%. That’s the largest one week increase in bullish sentiment since the end of April and the highest weekly print since January. Even with this increase, though, bulls have failed to take the majority for a record 141 straight weeks.

 

Just about all of the increase in bullish sentiment this week came from investors leaving the bearish camp.  From last week’s level of 34.98%, bearish sentiment cratered to 21.97%. The last time bearish sentiment was this low was in early April.  Again, while it seems nice to see that investors are increasingly warming up to the market, keep in mind that equities have gotten to these record high levels with little in the way of support from individual investors.