From Boston Globe/AP (Boston.com/AP):
AP IMPACT: Ordinary folks losing faith in stocks - Business - Boston.com
‘‘You have to trust your government. You have to trust other governments. You have to trust Wall Street,’’ says Neitlich, 47. ‘‘And I don’t trust any of these.’’
"Defying decades of investment history, ordinary Americans are selling stocks for a fifth year in a row. The selling has not let up despite unprecedented measures by the Federal Reserve to persuade people to buy and the come-hither allure of a levitating market. Stock prices have doubled from March 2009, their low point during the Great Recession.
It’s the first time ordinary folks have sold during a sustained bull market since relevant records were first kept during World War II, an examination by The Associated Press has found. The AP analyzed money flowing into and out of stock funds of all kinds, including relatively new exchange-traded funds, which investors like because of their low fees.
‘‘People don’t trust the market anymore,’’ says financial historian Charles Geisst of Manhattan College. He says a ‘‘crisis of confidence’’ similar to one after the Crash of 1929 will keep people away from stocks for a generation or more."
Andrew Neitlich, who is a financial stock-picker during the dot.com era, now has 12% of his $800K portfolio in stocks. That is extreme. He is not in the minorty, either. Either the stock market is approaching to the end or it is the beginning of a great bull market (from the contrarian perspectives).
