Bullish Sentiment Drops At All-Time Highs

I always find it interesting when markets hit new highs and bullish sentiment simultaneously drops. I realize there's a lot of noise in these weekly AAII Sentiment polls, but it's fascinating nonetheless. I think it's really just the same old story of a hated market. The AAII Investor Sentiment Survey measures the percentage of individual investors who are bullish, bearish, or neutral on the stock market over the next six months. This week's numbers came in with a drop in bulls down to just 38.5%, somehow below its long-term average, even with stocks at historic levels. The number of bears picked up a bit as well to 29.3% of those who took the poll.

Here's the chart of bullish sentiment compared to the S&P500 since the 2009 bottom. I think it's hilarious that with each new high in the market, there have been less and less bulls. You would think the opposite should be occurring.

Sources:

AAII Sentiment Survey Results 5-15-13 (AAII.com)

Bullish Sentiment Drops For The First Time In Five Weeks (Bespoke)

Tags: $SPY $SPX