One week ago, when looking at the latest BofA client flow trend monitor, we noticed something strange: despite the S&P’s (SPY) surge higher due to either a we noticed something strangeor because it is merely another bear market rally, the smart money was selling.

In fact, as BofA’s Jill Hall calculated, the three groups that make up the so-called “smart money” basket, hedge funds, BofA’s institutional clients as well its private clients, had been selling aggressively every week for the prior five. As she explained on March 1, “last week, during which the S&P 500 climbed 1.6%, BofAML clients were net sellers of US stocks for the fifth consecutive week, in the amount of $1.5bn. This was the biggest weekly outflow since mid-December.” Someone clearly was very grateful for the selling opportunity that this squeeze was providing.

Well, we can now add one more week to the total: in BofA’s latest note, “last week, during which the S&P 500 rallied 2.7%, BofAML clients were net sellers of US stocks for the sixth week.

She explains that “similar to the prior week, hedge funds, institutional clients, and private clients were all net sellers, though sales last week were led by private clients (vs. hedge funds the week prior). Our hedge fund clients remain the biggest net sellers of US stocks year-to-date.” 

The full breakdown below:

Clients were net sellers of stocks in five of the ten sectors last week and net buyers of the remaining five, as well as ETFs. Tech and the commodity-oriented sectors of Industrials and Materials saw the largest net sales, while Financials and Utilities saw the largest net buying…All three client groups sold stocks last week, led by private clients.”

So, like last week, we again know who is selling but what about the other side: was it just shorts covering who are providing the bid? The answer is no: “buybacks by corporate clients accelerated last week to their highest level since August, and are tracking above levels we saw this time last year, though below levels we observed in 2014 (see chart below). Clients sold both large and small caps last week, but continued to buy mid-caps—which have seen the most persistent buying by our clients over the last several years despite being crowded and expensive.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email