This article reviews the data from the latest weekly sentiment survey we conduct over on Twitter. The survey measures respondents' equity and bond positioning/view - differentiating between whether the view is bullish or bearish for technical or fundamental reasoning. The latest results showed a further decline in net bullishness on the equity survey, driven by an increase in technical bears (+7pts) and drop in technical bulls (-6pts), albeit the fundamentals bull-bear spread ticked up. At a highest level it shows a divergence between price and sentiment... a bearish divergence.
The first two charts show how sentiment is rolling over vs price, which has in the past flagged an impending selloff. Likewise the sentiment vs VIX chart shows a gap opening up. This gap seems to be implying an expected VIX level of at least 13-14 vs the current 9-10. This lines up with the commentary in the latest Weekly S&P500 #ChartStorm ("Overbought and Overhyped").
Finally, the last chart shows how "fundamentals" sentiment has been tracking in the equity and bond surveys, and how there has actually been a big improvement here. So taking this all together I would say there is a reasonable chance of a sell-off, but if the improved fundamentals sentiment is anything to go by such a selloff would probably be short-lived.
The overall bulls vs bears spread has rolled over. This contrasts with higher prices and has in the past been a red flag for markets.
On a similar note, the bull/bear spread (shown in the graph below, inverted or upside down), has opened up a gap vs the CBOE Volatility Index, and is suggesting a higher VIX from here.
Finally, the "fundamentals" sentiment picture is still looking pretty good, with the upturn in equity fundamentals bullishness confirmed by that observed in the bond market.
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