As the equity market nears a record high, both institutional and individual investors continue to indicate they are less bullish. The NAAIM Exposure Index continues to decline with long equity exposure down to 77%.

Yesterday’s AAII Sentiment Survey report showed bullish sentiment fell another 3.1 percentage points to 25% and now is below the minus one standard deviation level for bullish sentiment. 

The market rarely rewards investors for being properly positioned for a market pullback. Sentiment measures are contrarian ones and by these measures only, this widespread skepticism would suggest the market might continue to move higher.