Reverse Indicator: Investors Yank $138 Billion from Equity Funds and Stash $1 Trillion in Bond Funds

“The stock market is reaching toward new highs on the fourth anniversary of the financial crisis, but many people refuse to be lured back.

Even as stock indexes have doubled in value since the market low in March 2009, investors have yanked a net $138 billion from mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that invest in U.S. stocks, according to the Investment Company Institute, a mutual-fund trade group. Investors over the same period put $1 trillion into bond funds, a traditionally lower yielding but safer investment.

It marks the first time since 1981 that investors have pulled money from U.S.-stock funds for more than a year at a time.

Crumbling confidence in stocks reflects a broader loss of trust in the stock market and in the idea that the prudent investor could expect a comfortable retirement and even a measure of wealth.”

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