AAII Sentiment Survey: Pessimism Falls Slightly

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

Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, was unchanged at 40.9%. Bullish sentiment is above its historical average of 37.5% for the 27th time in 28 weeks.

Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, increased 0.5 percentage points to 35.9%. Neutral sentiment is above its historical average of 31.5% for the fourth time in nine weeks.

Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased 0.6 percentage points to 23.3%. Bearish sentiment is below its historical average of 31.0% for the second time in five weeks.

The bull-bear spread (bullish minus bearish sentiment) increased 0.6 percentage points to 17.6%. The bull-bear spread is above its historical average of 6.5% for the second time in five weeks.

This week’s special question asked AAII members about their perception of inflation.

Here is how they responded:

• It’s slowing, but not by enough: 46.0%
• It’s still rising too quickly: 26.1%
• It’s returning to a more acceptable pace: 23.5%
• Not sure/no opinion: 4.4%

See more Sentiment Survey results.