One of the most enduring and perplexing streaks of the last few years came to an end this week as bullish sentiment on the part of individual investors topped 50% for the first time in just under three years. That’s right! The weekly sentiment survey from the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) showed that bullish sentiment increased from 45.0 up to 50.5%. That’s the first 50%+ reading since the first week of 2015! That streak of 154 weeks without a 50%+ reading was the longest that we have ever seen in the history of the survey!
Instances of bulls having a majority in the weekly AAII poll haven’t just been uncommon in the last three years either. Throughout the course of the current bull market, there have only been 21 times during the prior 458 weeks where bullish sentiment was above 50%. We mentioned at the top that this was one of the most perplexing streaks we have seen in the market in some time. The reason for the word perplexing is that the streak continued through what has been one of the most consistent market rallies many investors have ever seen, but based on this survey at least, investors are only just coming around to the idea of being bullish. Hopefully, they aren’t too late.
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