AAII Sentiment Survey: Neutral Sentiment Rises

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

Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, decreased 2.6 percentage points to 40.7%. Optimism is above its historical average of 37.5% for the 57th time in 59 weeks.

Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, increased 2.9 percentage points to 27.9%. Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the 23rd time in 24 weeks.

Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased 0.2 percentage points to 31.4%. Pessimism is above its historical average of 31.0% for the fourth time in five weeks.

The bull-bear spread (bullish minus bearish sentiment) decreased 2.4 percentage points to 9.3%. The bull-bear spread is above its historical average of 6.5% for the 31st time in 33 weeks.

This week’s special question asked AAII members their opinion on bitcoin.

Here’s how they responded:

• It is a purely speculative instrument with no fundamental value: 56.7%
• It is a technological innovation with potential future value: 18.2%
• It is an alternative asset (like gold): 9.7%
• It is a legitimate form of currency for transactions: 2.0%
• Not sure/no opinion: 13.0%

See more Sentiment Survey results.