Over the last 30 months, $177.7 billion has been funneled out of mutual and exchange traded funds based on U.S. equities. During the first four months of the year, investors added $18.7 billion. Meanwhile, bond funds saw $42.3 billion in inflows from the end of April through July before experiencing weekly outflows in August.
Brian Barish, the Denver-based president of Cambiar Investors LLC, believes the mass pullout in stocks is a bullish signal.
“The five months after Lehman were an epic buying opportunity, yet investors liquidated en masse,” Barish said. “Retail unfortunately tends to time things poorly. I don’t expect the current situation to be all that different.”
For more information on the broader U.S. stock market, visit our S&P 500 category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.