Investor Sentiment Hits Third-Most Bullish Level Since 2022, BofA Survey Shows

Bank of America's August 2026 Global Fund Manager Survey shows investor sentiment climbed to its third most bullish reading since 2022, extending two straight months of growing risk appetite among global fund managers Investing.com.

The August result builds on the July survey, reported July 14, 2026, in which global investors turned most bullish since February 2026 Reuters. In that July survey, cash allocations fell to what Bank of America called an "uber-low" 3.6%, down from 4.1% in June. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point, so that 50-basis-point drop means fund managers trimmed their cash holdings by half a percentage point in a single month. Bank of America's own use of "uber-low" signals positioning well below historical norms, consistent with a cohort rotating out of defensive cash balances and into riskier assets like stocks.

Why does the cash level matter? A 3.6% average cash weighting is the kind of level that historically correlates with thinner risk premiums (the extra return investors demand for holding riskier assets) and less dry powder available for additional buying. Think of dry powder as the cash a fund manager keeps on hand to buy new investments. When that buffer runs low, the next dollar flowing into stocks has to come from selling something else, not from fresh money coming in the door. That creates a structurally more fragile demand base.

The driver behind the July shift was an easing of trade-related risk. Fund managers became more bullish as the trade threat receded, with cash allocations staying low while investors maintained overweight equity positions, according to the Bank of America survey Trustnet. "Overweight" simply means holding more of an asset than a benchmark target would suggest. The August survey's further surge in sentiment suggests that risk re-rating continued as trade concerns faded further into the rearview mirror.

Layering the data points chronologically: February 2026 marked a prior bullish peak. Sentiment then moderated through the spring before the July survey captured a sharp swing back to those February levels. August pushed further still, landing in the top three bullish readings in the post-2022 series, a period spanning roughly four years of survey data covering the full arc from the 2022 bear market through the subsequent recovery.

The pace of the sentiment shift is notable. Two monthly surveys have now produced two consecutive bullish accelerations, with cash allocations moving from 4.1% to an "uber-low" 3.6% in July and the August reading extending the directional move into the top-three bracket since 2022. For allocators who use the survey as a contrarian indicator, this is the zone where the crowd becomes the trade. Elevated bullishness at these levels has, in past cycles, coincided with near-term equity drawdowns, though whether that pattern repeats depends on macroeconomic conditions that the survey itself does not capture.

What the survey does capture is positioning, not conviction in the fundamental sense. Fund managers reporting low cash and overweight equities are describing their current portfolio state, not making a forecast. The bullishness is a snapshot of allocations already deployed.

The broader context here is about crowding, not whether these investors are right or wrong. The risk for markets is that sentiment this elevated leaves limited room for incremental positioning to drive prices higher, while simultaneously creating a larger pool of coordinated exposure should a catalyst trigger de-risking. If everyone is already invested and something spooks the group, the exit door gets crowded fast.

The August reading, third most bullish since 2022, places the current cohort in rarefied territory across a series that spans multiple macroeconomic regimes. Whether that proves prescient or premature is a question the next survey cycle will begin to answer.