Latest Fund Manager Survey Finds "Notable Disconnect" Between Macro Views And US Stocks

For the past three years, we have consistently said that the BofA Fund Manager Survey (FMS) is the most incongruous combination of zero signal and ample, schizophrenic noise, a "survey" in which the respondents answer not what they are actually doing, but what they would like to be doing, or failing that, what they think is the right answer even if two consecutive replies may be diametrically opposing and make zero sense taken together (alternatively, it feels like every respondent is a pathological liar and nobody actually tells the truth about what they are doing either out of paranoia or, well, because they are pathological liar).

Which is also why we have urged readers to at most spend just a few minutes each month on the cacophonous orgy of noise that is the BofA Fund Manager Survey, which not only has zero signal but has zero correlation to the market. It does, however, correlate to itself and any time sentiment turns overly euphoric or apocalyptic, that's the hint to take the other side in the market. A good example of this was last August, when FMS organized Michael Hartnett said that Wall Street's "Mood Was No Longer Apocalyptic", and therefore he recommended shorting the S&P just as the S&P hit the highest level for several quarters.