Investor sentiment stuck in neutral

5/28/2026 – The spread between American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Bullish Sentiment and Bearish Sentiment remains stuck in neutral, reflecting a continued lack of conviction among individual investors.

The AAII Bulls versus Bears spread suggests that individual investors are neither aggressively chasing the market higher nor meaningfully fading the rally. This sentiment indicator currently stands at -6.3, improving modestly from the prior week’s -11.9 reading. In our view, sentiment remains indecisive and directionless.

While AAII Bulls versus Bears shows more bears than bulls over the last two weeks, the indicator remains neither complacent nor fearful and still lacks a decisive contrarian signal. Over the past year, the spread has been noisy, frequently oscillating between positive and negative territory, leaving the broader sentiment backdrop effectively neutral as the U.S. equity market has rallied.

Using standard deviation bands, fearful, oversold, and contrarian bullish readings are in the -34.6 to -39.0 range and below, while complacent, overbought, and contrarian bearish conditions emerge at +34.4 to +37.1 and above.

Chart 1: S&P 500 (top) and the spread between American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Bullish Sentiment and Bearish Sentiment: Weekly chart

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