Sentimental Journey

Are you optimistic about this stock market's prospects yet? If you're not, you're not alone. A recent survey from the American Association of Individual Investors found that 43 percent of investors are still having bearish sentiments about the future of the market. That's the highest it's been in almost a year, which apparently reflects the cooling-off in May after a generally positive 12 months prior to that.

That's not a terrible figure, of course, although it's above the historical average of 30 percent of investors feeling bearish. By contrast, 35 percent of individual investors are feeling bullish right now, with 22 percent reporting neutral thoughts.

Among investment advisors, the sentiments are a bit more positive. Only 32 percent of investment advisors report their outlook as bearish, while significantly more - 39 percent - consider themselves bullish. It's interesting that the professionals' sentiments are basically flip-flopped from the individual investors'. We'll see who has the better grasp of the situation in the end.