Carl Swenlin @ Decision Point comes up with some interesting stats at times. Your thoughts and comments below are encouraged.
The Investment Company Institute (ici.org) compiles statistics on mutual funds and publishes them monthly. (There is a one month delay between the end of the month being reported and publication.) Decision Point has been collecting these data for almost five years, and we finally have enough to start charting it. Amounts shown on the charts are in billions.
The bottom panel on the first chart shows the percentage of of mutual fund assets held in cash. A low percentage of cash indicates that fund managers are bullish on stocks and do not believe they will need much cash to meet redemptions, as would be the case if stock prices were to fall. The current percentage (3.4%) is lower than what it was near the top of the last bull market. I would consider that to be bearish for stocks.
The next chart shows assets in money market funds. What stands out to me is th
