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Investors Hate Stocks... and That's a Good Thing

By Brett Eversole
Tuesday, June 2, 2015

In March 2009, "investor bullishness" hit the lowest levels of the last decade.
 
Since then, stocks have soared more than 200%. But here's the shocking thing...
 
Despite years of steady gains, "investor bullishness" recently hit an extreme low... one of the lowest we've seen since the bull market began.
 
Based on history, that's a good sign for stocks over the next few months.
 
Let me explain...
 
Gains keep racking up in stocks... but investors simply aren't interested.
 
This might be the most hated bull market in history. Stocks have spent the last six years climbing the "Wall of Worry."
 
Everyone is looking for the next "black swan" to derail the economy and cause a crash in stocks. Despite years of gains, no one is excited. No one is piling in...
 
We got a clear reading of this negativity in the most recent American Association of Individual Investors ("AAII") survey... It showed us exactly how low "investor bullishness" is right now.
 
You see, the AAII survey asks individual investors if they're 1) bullish, 2) bearish, or 3) neutral about the stock market over the next six months.
 
Two weeks ago, only 25% of investors told AAII they were bullish on stocks. That same number bottomed at 19% in March 2009, before stocks took off. And since the bull market began, we've only seen a reading of 25% or lower a handful of times.
 
Not surprisingly, stocks tend to do well when investors aren't bullish, like today. The table below shows how stocks have performed over the past six years whenever "investor bullishness" hit the extreme levels that we've seen recently...
 
 
6 Months
1 Year
S&P 500 Return After Extreme*
10.8%
17.7%
S&P 500 Return All Periods*
9.7%
14.2%
Outperformance
1.1%
3.5%
*Median returns

The S&P 500 has had median six-month returns of 9.7% over the last six years. But buying after an AAII reading at or below today's level led to six-month gains of 10.8%. That's a 1.1% outperformance.
 
Similarly, a year later, stocks did 3.5% better buying after this extreme. They returned median gains of 17.7% versus just 14.2% for all S&P 500 one-year periods.
 
These aren't massive outperformance figures. But stocks do tend to perform better when investors aren't interested.
 
Shockingly, investors aren't interested six-plus years into this bull market. And based on history, it means we can expect more gains from here.
 
Good investing,
 
Brett Eversole




Further Reading:

Steve Sjuggerud recently shared a few more reasons why stocks can go higher from here:
 
Today, stocks are about as expensive as they were on Black Monday in 1987... Time to sell?
 
"In our zero-percent-interest world, stocks are where the value is in financial assets."

Market Notes


CHINESE STOCKS: STILL SOARING

Chinese stocks continue to soar... and DailyWealth readers shouldn't be surprised.
 
Over the past six months, Steve has written a lot about Chinese stocks. In short, China's market had exactly what Steve looks for in an investment... it was 1) cheap, 2) hated, and 3) in an uptrend. Last November, he even told readers that China was "the best market for 100% gains right now."
 
At the time, Steve recommended readers take a look at the Deutsche X-trackers Harvest China A-Shares Fund (ASHR). This fund holds local Chinese stocks – commonly known as "A" shares. As Steve explained, these stocks are different than what you get in a typical U.S.-traded China fund.
 
As you can see below, Steve's call was well-timed. Since his first note on ASHR appeared in DailyWealth six months ago, the fund is up nearly 100%. And just last week, Steve told readers why Chinese "A" shares are still one of his top ideas today. As expected, it's still a bull market in Chinese stocks.
 

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