Are investors holding back on decisions until after the election?

It’s still a couple of months until the presidential election but are the potential impacts on the markets depending on a Harris or Trump win deterring stalling investment decisions?

It’s a question asked by the American Association of Individual Investors as part of its weekly survey of investor sentiment, determining whether respondents are more bullish or more bearish on US equities for the coming months.

Bullish sentiment remains above the historical average of 37.5% this week, as it has done 43 times out of the last 44 weeks. But it decreased by almost 6 points to 45.3%, narrowing the gap with bearish sentiment to 20.4%.

Bearish sentiment was down almost three points this week to 24.9%, remaining below its historical average of 31% for the fourth week.

On the topic of holding off making investment decisions until after the election, most of the survey’s respondents are not with 60% saying they are sticking to their long term plan. Another 16% say they are not holding back for now but may do once the election results are in, and 4% are not sure.

That leaves 9.6% who say they are not putting new money to work right now and 9.6% who have switched to a more conservative allocation until after the election.