AAII Sentiment Survey: Neutral Sentiment Increases

Neutral sentiment among individual investors about the short-term outlook for stocks increased in the latest AAII Sentiment Survey. Meanwhile, pessimism decreased while optimism was unchanged.

Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, was unchanged at 49.0%. Bullish sentiment is at an unusually high level and is above its historical average of 37.5% for the 14th consecutive week.

Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, increased 2.0 percentage points to 28.4%. Despite the increase, neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the eighth time in 10 weeks.

Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased 2.0 percentage points to 22.6%. Bearish sentiment is below its historical average of 31.0% for the 14th consecutive week.

The bull-bear spread (bullish minus bearish sentiment) increased 1.9 percentage points to 26.5%. The bull-bear spread is at an unusually high level and is above its historical average of 6.5% for the 14th consecutive week.

This week’s special question asked AAII members what they thought about the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged.

Here is how they responded:

• It was the right decision: 79.3%
• They should have cut rates: 8.8%
• They should have raised rates: 5.5%
• Not sure/no opinion: 5.8%

See more Sentiment Survey results.