{"id":69126,"date":"2023-10-05T15:30:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T19:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/news\/aaii-sentiment-survey-5-month-high-for-bearish-sentiment\/"},"modified":"2023-10-05T15:30:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T19:30:23","slug":"aaii-sentiment-survey-5-month-high-for-bearish-sentiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=69126","title":{"rendered":"AAII Sentiment Survey: 5-Month High For Bearish Sentiment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

<\/picture>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Pessimism among individual investors about the short-term outlook for stocks rose for the third consecutive week in the latest AAII Sentiment Survey. Bullish sentiment also rose for the first time in four weeks.<\/p>\n

Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, rebounded by 2.3 percentage points to 30.1%. Even with the increase, optimism is below its historical average of 37.5% for the seventh time in eight weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, declined by 2.9 percentage points to 28.3%. Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for just the second time in eight weeks.<\/p>\n

Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, rose 0.6 percentage points to 41.6%. Though modest, it was still a large enough increase to put pessimism at its highest level since May 4, 2023 (44.9%). This is the fifth time in seven weeks that bearish sentiment is above its historical average of 31.0%.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bull-bear spread (bullish minus bearish sentiment) rebounded by 1.7 percentage points to \u201311.5%.<\/p>\n

Bearish sentiment remains at an unusually high level (more than one standard deviation above its historical average) for the second consecutive week. Historically, the S&P 500 index has gone on to realize above-average and above-median returns during the six- and 12-month periods following unusually high readings for bearish sentiment.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s special question asked AAII members how, if at all, they have changed their approach to investing recently. Here are their responses:<\/p>\n