Bulls beware — BofA Fund Manager Survey flashing contrarian sell signal

The monthly Global Fund Manager Survey from Bank of America has been widely followed for years on Wall Street for its ability to suggest sentiment extremes that often precede sizable market reversals.

Indeed, the latest report released Tuesday shows professional investor sentiment is running at its hottest level in years. Among the key data points are fund managers' cash levels — they've dropped to just 3.3%, the lowest in the history of the survey, a clear signal that professional investors are leaning hard into risk.

The move comes alongside a broader shift into equities and commodities. The survey, which tracks the views of roughly 200 fund managers overseeing more than $500 billion in assets, shows net 42% of respondents are overweight equities, the highest reading since December 2024. With gold, silver and copper at or near record highs, commodities are also in favor, with a net 18% overweight, their strongest showing since September 2022.

Overall investor sentiment registered its strongest read since July 2021.

Investor optimism is tied to expectations for a resilient global economy. Fifty-seven percent of respondents forecast a soft landing by 2026, and only 3% expect a hard landing, the lowest since mid-2021. Global growth and profit expectations are at their highest since August 2021. Even liquidity conditions, often a concern in rising-rate environments, are being rated the third-best of the past 17 years.

What's it mean for crypto?

The data suggests positive investor sentiment so extreme that traditional markets could be headed for a pullback. To the extent that bitcoin BTC$87,686.18 and crypto is correlated to the Nasdaq, that might mean even deeper losses.

On the other hand, with the economy today so tied to what markets are doing, a broad stock decline could accelerate the Fed's current tepid rate-cutting plans. Last week's updated projections from the U.S. central bank pointed to expectations for just one rate cut for all of 2026. A series of rate cuts next year could provide the liquidity firepower necessary to re-start the crypto bull market.