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Investment strategist refers to the individual investor bullish sentiment indicator as a contrarian measure. Individual investors historically become the least bullish at market bottoms and the most bullish at market tops.

As reported by the American Association of Individual Investors, this past week's bullishness reading fell to a level below that reported on November 20. The percent of individual investors that are bullish on the market was reported at 24% versus last week's reading of 28.95%. The 24% level is lower than reported on November 20: 24.37%. Since November 20, the S&P 500 Index has risen over 15%. The bull/bear spread came in at -31% versus last week's spread of -15%.

click to enlarge

individual investor bullish sentiment chart January 1, 2009Data Source: American Association of Individual Investors

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