Brokers more bullish on US than UK stocks

TIM Sentiment Index (TSI) rose 2.1% week over week to 50.90 on August 6, 2009 from 49.84 on July 30, 2009.

The TSI for North America was up 13.6%, to 54.93. This more than offset weakness in the TSI for the UK which was down 13.2% to 45.38.

Markets increased over the last five trading days, with the FTSE 100 up 1.3% and S&P 500 rising 1.0% as of August 6, 2009 compared with July 30, 2009. The TSI decreased 2.4% to 49.84 on July 30, 2009 from 51.06 on July 23, 2009. This data indicated that brokers, while generally bullish with their new ideas, had stepped up profit taking.

Above 50 is considered bullish and less than 50 bearish.

Total new short ideas as a percentage of all new ideas sent to investment managers in real time through the Trade Idea Monitor increased marginally to 33.21% on August 6, 2009, from 33.19% on July 30, 2009. Shorts were 34.96% of ideas in August and 40.69% year to date.

The TIM weekly report is based on equity trading ideas sent in real time by TIM. Equity sales people, sales traders and research analysts at institutional brokerage companies use TIM worldwide to send ideas on more than 13,000 stocks and exchange trade funds (ETFs) to clients.

The TSI is based on trading ideas sent by more than 4,300 professionals at 350 institutional brokerage companies to their clients at approximately 150 investment managers around the world. More than 65% of TIM contributors outperformed their regional indexes in 2008.