Half of Investors Interested in Allocating More to Stocks or Stock Funds

Last month’s Asset Allocation Survey special question asked AAII members which asset class they would allocate to if they could add new money to their investment accounts.

Nearly one out of three respondents (31%) say they would add stocks while 22% say they would add stock funds. About 8% say they would add bonds and 9% say they would add bond funds. This compares to 19% of respondents who say they would add more cash, money market funds or certificates of deposit (CDs). Additionally, 6% of respondents say that they would add exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and 4% say they would add cryptocurrencies, precious metals or gold/silver. Finally, 1% of respondents state that they would maintain their current allocations.

Many respondents gave more than one answer.

Here is a sampling of the responses:

• “Stock funds. I’m following AAII founder James Cloonan’s suggestion to invest in equities when the market is lower than 95% of its all-time high.”
• “At this time, I am trying to build up cash in order to take advantage of anticipated future downside volatility.”
• “I’m gradually going out of cash into equity ETFs. By using some leveraged ETFs, I can still maintain a relatively high cash position. I’m currently up about 5% for the year.”
• “If I do put money in, it will only be for very large-cap companies with a long history of being able to generate consistently increasing yearly net income. The next 18 months look very scary and unpredictable regardless of what the analysts say. Their crystal ball is not any better than mine.”