Bull / Bear Readings, Pt. II
Brian Trumbore
President/Editor, StocksandNews.com

As I noted last week in part I of my little study on investor sentiment, as represented by the "Investors Intelligence" survey, this is but one indicator that some Wall Street strategists and investors employ.

Picking up where I left off, following are some readings for the past 7 years. I tried to show some key reversal dates (remember, this is generally viewed as a 'contrarian' indicator), as well as give you a sense what sentiment looked like at key market levels.

[For a full description of this topic, view last week's edition.]

Date??..Bulls?.Bears?.Dow Jones

2/9/96??53.8?.29.4??..5541
8/2/96??40.8?.43.4??..5679
1/31/97?..54.3?.26.7??..6831
4/11/97?..35.0?.41.4??..6391?crossover
4/3/98??53.2?.22.6??..8983
4/24/98?..54.6?.23.1??..9064
9/4/98??40.7?.43.2??..7640
9/18/98?..36.4?.47.5??..7895
11/27/98?57.9?.29.8??..9333
2/12/99?..61.2?.25.9??..9274
5/7/99??58.6?.27.6??.11031
9/3/99??42.9?.31.9??.11078
12/31/99?55.0?.27.0??.11497
1/14/00?..54.5?.26.5??.11722?all-time high for Dow
3/10/00?..53.4?.27.6??...9928..but Nasdaq hits high of 5048
3/24/00?..55.7?.26.4??.11112?incredible volatility
5/26/00?..46.0?.32.4??.10299
9/1/00??47.1?.33.7??.11238?all indices had rallied back
12/29/00?51.4?.36.2??.10786
2/2/01??61.0.....30.0??.10864?61.8* the following week
4/27/01?..43.9?.41.8??.10810
7/13/01?..51.0?.25.0??.10539
9/21/01?..35.7?.37.6??..8235?post-9/11, market reopened
12/28/01?48.4?.27.3??.10136
1/25/02?..52.6?.23.7??..9840
7/19/02?..35.4?.39.6??..8019
8/30/02?..45.7?.31.5??..8663
10/18/02?28.4?.43.2??..8332?market bottomed 10/9-10/10
12/6/02?..51.1?.25.0??..8645

*All-time high 'bull' reading since I've been tracking this barometer, 3/90. The all-time low for the 'bears' during this same period is the 19.1 reading registered the week ending 1/24/92.

Wall Street History returns next week.

Brian Trumbore