AAII Sentiment Survey: Neutral Sentiment Drops

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

Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, increased 1.0 percentage points to 39.3%. Bullish sentiment is above its historical average of 37.5% for the fourth consecutive week.

Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, decreased 4.7 percentage points to 24.1%. Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the 95th time in 97 weeks.

Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, increased 3.7 percentage points to 36.6%. Bearish sentiment is above its historical average of 31.0% for the 14th consecutive week.

The bull-bear spread (bullish minus bearish sentiment) decreased 2.7 percentage points to 2.7%. The bull-bear spread is below its historical average of 6.5% for the 13th time in 14 weeks.

This week’s special question asked AAII members what type of stocks they are favoring right now.

Here is how they responded:

• Growth stocks: 21.1%
• Dividend stocks: 17.0%
• Value stocks: 13.2%
• Small-cap stocks: 4.5%
• A mix of the above/other: 43.8%

See more Sentiment Survey results.