Overall sentiment this week is once again mixed between institutions and small investors. The AAII’s small investor survey showed a 2% decline in bullish sentiment to 39%. This was just the second reading below 40% in the prior 6 weeks. The investors intelligence poll continues to show a growing sense of bullishness. Bulls jumped from 54% to 56%. Investors expecting a correction slumped to 25.3% from 28%. The bullish reading is the highest level since 2007. Of course, this data does not include yesterday’s market crash. Mark Hulbert at MarketWatch says his newsletter survey plummeted 38% with the market and my guess is that we will see similarly large drops in bullishness when next week’s II and AAII data comes out.
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.