For almost two decades, we have released an Investor Confidence Index, measuring the confidence level of institutional investors using an aggregate of an anonymized pool of trillions of dollars in assets.

To provide more transparency into what drives market movements, we created two new monthly indicators:

• Our Institutional Investor Holdings Indicator shows the aggregate holdings of institutional investors across three asset classes: stocks, bonds and cash. This simple information can tell us a lot about how investors view the economy and markets.
• Our Institutional Investor Risk Appetite Indicator is based on flows — buying and selling activity — rather than portfolio positions. It reveals whether investors, in aggregate, are buying risk or selling it. While the Holdings Indicator tells us about the current location, the Risk Appetite Indicator tells us about the direction of travel.

Each month, our team of investment strategists analyze these measures, and many more, to offer real-time context and insights into what it all means for markets.