---
title: "Bank of America: Fund managers significantly increased their stock holdings, triggering a \"sell\" signal"
type: "News"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/276192918.md"
description: "According to the latest survey by Bank of America, fund managers increasing their stock holdings triggered a \"sell\" signal, with the overweight ratio of stocks reaching the highest level since December 2024, and the underweight ratio of bonds at the highest level since September 2022. Wall Street professionals are shifting towards emerging markets and the European Union, avoiding Japan. The Bank of America bull-bear indicator reading is 8.2, indicating a surge in market optimism, which may suggest that stocks are overvalued. Hartnett advises investors to reduce risk and implement multiple pair trades. The overweight ratio of commodities has reached the highest level since May 2022, while the cash holding ratio has slightly increased"
datetime: "2026-02-18T03:07:18.000Z"
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  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/276192918.md)
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276192918.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/276192918.md)
---

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# Bank of America: Fund managers significantly increased their stock holdings, triggering a "sell" signal

According to the latest fund manager survey by Bank of America, the degree to which investors have increased their stock holdings is sufficient to trigger a contrarian sell signal.

Bank of America investment strategist Michael Hartnett stated that the overweight ratio of stocks in portfolios has reached its highest level since December 2024, while the underweight ratio of bonds is the highest since September 2022. However, there is one exception: Wall Street professionals are shifting from U.S. products to emerging markets and the European Union, while avoiding Japan.

This bullish move has triggered the Bank of America Bull & Bear Indicator, which measures market sentiment, and the current reading is 8.2, signaling "sell." Hartnett noted that globally, the last time market optimism was this strong was in June 2021. The heightened market optimism may indicate that stocks are overvalued and should be sold.

Hartnett advises investors to reduce risk in the first quarter and implement several pair trades, including going long on bonds, shorting gold, going long on the U.S. dollar, shorting emerging markets, and going long on tech stocks while shorting bank stocks.

In other aspects, Wall Street's commodity overweight ratio has also reached its highest level since May 2022, and the cash holding ratio has slightly increased to 3.4% of portfolios, just 0.2 percentage points above the historical low. Hartnett stated that investors are betting on an "overheating economy," with optimism for growth at its highest since February 2022.

More exclusive planning and expert columns from the U.S. stock channel, free to read \>\>

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