Sunday, April 18, 2010

Bulls Continue to Dominate: A Survey of Stock Market Sentiment


After Friday's decline, the CBOE equity put/call ratio moved toward levels that have been normal for the bull market, but hardly showed bearishness. Indeed, we can see the extreme bullish sentiment that accompanied the market's recent run up.

Meanwhile, the AAII poll of trader sentiment shows bears at 30%, the lowest reading since the first quarter of 2008. According to the Investor's Intelligence survey, 51% of participants are bullish, 19% bearish. Readings of less than 20% have tended to occur at intermediate-term market tops; the last such reading occurred early in January.
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