Mr Bull and Mr Bear

The American Association of Individual Investors (If you are interested in investing and haven't joined - you should!) published its bull bear ratings. The current rating is 55.17% bearish - which means that more than half the investors think we are in a bear (down) market situation. That compares to 22.17% who believe we are in a bullish period. In 2000, right at the crest of the Tech Bubble the Bullish sentiment was at 75%. The average bullish sentiment indicator over the life of the survey is 39%.

AAII is all about improving the level of information that individual investors have for pursuing their own goals. They offer a wide range of reasonably priced services to help individuals hone their skills and capabilities. But this particular indicator is very close to what Warren Buffett called the Mr Market syndrome - the financial markets often work to extremes. Thus, the best time to sell is when everyone else is buying.

With numbers this bad it might be a real buying opportunity in the financial markets.