AAII Sentiment Survey: Pessimism Decreases

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

Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, increased 1.7 percentage points to 44.9%. Bullish sentiment is above its historical average of 37.5% for the 38th time in 39 weeks.

Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, increased 4.8 percentage points to 29.9%. Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the fourth consecutive week.

Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased 6.5 percentage points to 25.2%. Bearish sentiment is below its historical average of 31.0% for the seventh time in eight weeks.

The bull-bear spread (bullish minus bearish sentiment) increased 8.2 percentage points to 19.7%. The bull-bear spread is above its historical average of 6.5% for the 13th consecutive week.

This week’s special question asked AAII members if they think other investors are too bullish or bearish right now.

Here is how they responded:

• They are too bullish: 46.0%
• Their sentiment toward the market is about right: 30.5%
• They are too bearish: 13.3%
• No opinion/not sure: 9.7%

See more Sentiment Survey results.