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IPFS News Link • Economy - Economics USA

JPMorgan: "This Is The Moment Everyone Went All In"

• http://www.zerohedge.com, by Tyler Durden

There is a fascinating table in JPMorgan's 2018 year-end outlook released overnight, previewed yesterday by head quant Marko Kolanovic: it shows that a funny thing happened as the so-called experts were looking for signs of retail euphoria (and repeatedly were unable to find it): everyone went "all-in" stocks, and not just retail investors and US households, but mutual funds, hedge funds, pensions, systematic, and sovereign wealth funds.

The table below breaks down equity positioning in percentile terms by investor type: it shows that never investors have never been more long equities, or more "all-in" stocks.

As JPMorgan calculated first one month ago when looking at the equity positioning of the main investor types, "allocations are near historical highs, not leaving much room for further increases." How historic? The bank explains: 

Starting with retail investors one can notice that margin debt (measured as percentage of market capitalization) is at its highest point ever, which includes the 2000 tech bubble episode. The percentage of US household wealth in equities is in its 94th percentile and above its 2007 peak, but slightly below 2000 levels. Sovereign wealth funds and US mutual funds are also near record levels. Pension Fund allocations appear to be in the 88% percentile, although there is some uncertainty around this number in adjusting for private asset and HF holdings. Global Hedge Funds' allocation (as measured by equity beta) are also near record highs, and Equity Hedge funds' allocation in their 93rd percentile (since 2005).