(New York)

Retail investors are fleeing the stock market, yet it keeps rising. What gives? Bernstein Research just studied this situation and had some interesting findings. Firstly, retail investors’ rotation of out stock funds and into bond funds has been the largest in history, with $1.1 tn flowing out of stocks and into bonds in the last 12 months. Secondly, they found that none of that really matters given the current state of markets, which are being driven by buybacks and M&A. Finally, they found that such outflows are usually a very bullish sign and they generally signal over-pessimism and have often been followed by great returns.

FINSUM: This seems like a very solid counter indicator that things might start turning more positive.