Last week, the weekly Investors Intelligence survey of newsletter writers hit the 50% level. This has almost always market market turning points and the end of bear markets. It hasn't been this low since the bear market bottom of 1998. Then you have to go back to the 1994-1995 time-period, and then to the early 1990's when the first Gulf War and recession were going on. Bullish sentiment is also quite low. It currently stands at just 30%. This was the same level we saw at the 2002 bear market bottom and the lowest level in the past 10 years. Hopefully it will continue to stay like this if the market rises.
The Consensus bullish opinion of brokerage house analysts, investment advisor's, and independent research is also low which is another good contrarian indicator.
The other interesting thing is that when this recent rally attempt started, all I seemed to hear was not to trust this rally and that it was a bear market rally. It still may be but it's far different from what I was hearing before. Also, financial stocks (which are among the most widely disliked stocks), have been one of the best performing groups recently (although they are well off of their highs). Energy on the other hand, is getting trounced. Gold is also falling.