The ‘smart money’ is the most bearish on stocks since 2008, with ‘recession coming,’ BofA survey finds

: Category: Economics; Published: 18 December 2018

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Professional money managers have turned sharply bearish in their outlook for the stock market and the economy, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s December survey of more than 240 professional investors around the globe. 53% of those surveyed see the global economy deteriorating over the next twelve months, up from 44% in November, the highest share of those surveyed since Oct. 2008.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch

This bearishness has resulted in fund managers saying that the most crowded trade right now is long the U.S. dollar, after 10 straight months in which the most popular smart-money trade was long FAANG+BAT stocks, an acronym that stands for the fast growing U.S. tech firms Facebook Inc FB, +3.15%^[1] , Apple Inc.. AAPL, +1.67%^[2] , Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +2.20%^[3] , Netflix Inc. NFLX, +4.14%^[4] , and Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOG, +2.41%^[5] , plus the Chinese tech giants Baidu Inc. BIDU, -0.19%^[6] Alibaba Holding Group Ltd. BABA, -1.42%^[7] and Tencent Holdings Ltd TCEHY, +1.15%^[8] It has been common in recent years for money managers to report the dollar as the most crowded trade, such as a 12-month period from Oct. 2014 through Sept. 2015. But in those cases, it was belief in the Federal Reserve’s long-term plans for tighter monetary policy relative to the rest

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