Bearish responses in the American Association of Individual Investors’ weekly sentiment survey rose by 10.2 percentage points in the period ended 8 August, the sharpest increase since late February. The surge pushed the survey’s bull-bear spread back into negative territory for the first time in five weeks, indicating that pessimists again outnumber optimists among self-described retail investors. The shift mirrors positioning observed by Citadel Securities, which said institutional clients had been net bearish in eight of the past 12 weeks but last week showed a marked uptick in call-option buying, hinting at a possible turn in sentiment. Nonetheless, the AAII data underscore growing caution as investors weigh the market’s trajectory heading into the late-summer period.