AAII Sentiment Survey: Bullish Sentiment Makes a Comeback

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

Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, increased 3.6 percentage points to 40.3%. Bullish sentiment is above its historical average of 37.5% for the fourth time in 10 weeks.

Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, decreased 2.5 percentage points to 26.7%. Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the 54th time in 56 weeks.

Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased 1.0 percentage points to 33.0%. Bearish sentiment is above its historical average of 31.0% for the 35th time in 37 weeks.

The bull-bear spread (bullish minus bearish sentiment) increased 4.6 percentage points to 7.3%. The bull-bear spread is above its historical average of 6.5% for the second time in 26 weeks.

This week’s special question asked AAII members how they would describe the current valuation of stocks.

Here is how they responded:

• Stocks, in general, are overvalued: 45.2%
• Stocks, in general, are fairly valued: 13.4%
• Valuations are mixed, with some stocks expensive and others cheap: 37.6%
• Stocks, in general, are undervalued: 1.5%
• Not sure/no opinion: 1.5%

See more Sentiment Survey results.