Despite policy uncertainty and global risks, retail investors are cautiously optimistic about the stock market. Caleb Silver, Editor in Chief of Investopedia, joined TheStreet to discuss what’s behind the shift in sentiment.
Full Video Transcript Below:
CAROLINE WOODS: So we're talking retail investor sentiment. How are investors feeling right now?
CALEB SILVER: I think cautiously optimistic. We just surveyed our readers. Every two months. We talk to our newsletter readers. We ask them, how are you feeling. Are you bullish? Are you bearish? What are you buying. What are you afraid of right now. We've been tracking this very closely, especially over the past six months, and they're finally feeling a little bit better about things, but still a little bit skeptical about the future just because of the policy confusion. We've seen so much volatility in the stock market, but they got to love the rally and they got to love the trend. And most of them have kind of stayed put and kept to their investing strategies throughout all of this. And some of them even stepping out and buying the dip a few times.
CAROLINE WOODS: Finally feeling better about things. The market's at all time highs right now, but to your point, there is a lot of economic uncertainty. There are some geopolitical turmoil. Still there's a lot of uncertainty about what's going to happen with tariffs as those deadlines loom. Why do you think that they're not more panicked at this point?
CALEB SILVER: Because I think they've seen a lot of push and pull on the policy side, a lot of threats that were pulled back later on that didn't end up coming to fruition. And they've also seen the stock market kind of rebound throughout all of this. We bounce back from that 19% drop came right to the edge of a bear market, but it ended up being a cute little correction because it was over in a couple of weeks. As you know, the 90 day extension was put into place. So they've seen that happen. They've also seen their favorite stocks rebound aggressively. And I'm talking about the NVIDIAs, the Teslas of the world, even some of the other mega-cap tech stocks, they've seen them drop. A lot of them, as I said, did some dip buying. And they've been rewarded for that. Global fund managers, institutional investors much more bearish and have been much more bearish even throughout the recovery. They're protecting their clients' money. But individual investors have done the right thing. Sometimes just stand there and do nothing or be opportunistic when things are on sale.
