9/30/12, "US investors pulled $300B out of equity markets in last two years," NY Post, J.A. Byrne
"The US individual investor is taking his money and running for the exits.
Everyday shareholders can’t compete with high-frequency trading or the regulations coming out of the Dodd-Frank rules, which ironically were enacted to inspire confidence in the market.
Skittish investors have yanked more than $300 billion out of US equity markets in the last two years, with a drawdown of $4.47 billion last week alone.
That’s despite the huge climb in the Dow Jones industrial average since its depressionary low of 6,547 in March 2009.
A huge signpost on the road out of equities was the announcement late last week that Fidelity — the home of rock-star stock pickers like Peter Lynch — now has more than half of its customers’ $1.6 trillion assets in bond funds.
“Most people haven’t made money in the stock market in the last decade-plus,” said Sonu Kalra, who manages the $15.4 billion Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund....
This market is operating on much lower volumes than even five years ago — and it’s driven by the antics of high-frequency traders, these experts add. Retail investors polled for an Aite Group study — those in mutual funds and those who dabble in stocks — are certainly not fooled....
Even given the divisive nature of presidential politics, there is bipartisan support in both blue and red states, as well as among the undecided, for the proposition that investor confidence is low.
In the survey, the overarching belief is that this stock market stinks. A record 25 percent of Aite respondents in swing states had no confidence in US equities, along with 56 percent who were ambivalent — that is, “somewhat confident.”
Across the political spectrum, not too many respondents were “very confident.” It was
- 22 percent for Republican-leaning red states;
- 15 percent in swing states and
- 16 percent in Democratic-leaning blue states
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