People love to express claims on what other people are doing in the market.
Bulls love to believe that people have money to buy stocks and are scared in order to convince themselves that the market has more room to go higher.
And bears love to claim that everyone is bulled up.
But most people make such claims based on nothing - or very thin information.
In reality the most accurate judge of what people are really doing is the Ameritrade Index - which tracks the activities of millions of real individual investors.
It shows that the small fry has been manically buying stocks over the past few months ago.
He was in fact throwing money at stocks in July that actually turned out to be the market leaders on the downside during the current drop.
According to Ameritrade:
Oil producers were popular net buys in July, including Conoco-Phillips Corp. (COP), Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), and Chevron Corp. (CVX) as a slide in oil prices weighed on their share prices ahead of their earnings announcements. Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK), another energy sector issuer, was also a net buy as it also felt the pressure of lower oil prices and was forced to suspend its dividend payments. Apple Inc. (AAPL) was a net buy as its price dipped following its earnings announcement and disappointing guidance. TD Ameritrade clients were also net buyers of Netflix.com Inc. (NFLX) at its new, lower price point following its 7 for 1 forward split. Netflix’s stock price also gapped higher after reporting earnings above consensus estimates. The stock price of Facebook Inc. (FB) climbed to an all-time high, but traded lower toward the end of the month and was a popular buy of TD Ameritrade clients.
Additional popular names bought included Walt Disney Co. (DIS), Micron Technology Inc. (MU), and Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD).
Ameritraders succeeded in piling money into stocks such as Disney and Exxon in July right before they dumped.
The index is near a historic high for its range and had the biggest one month gain a few months. People are basically all-in as the stock market begins a bear market.
See for yourself here.
And of course you cannot convince such people that the stock market is dangerous as they will not listen. This is their final stock market gamble and they will simply not be denied.