A Bank of America survey of fund managers in September showed that 170 investors managing approximately $470 billion in assets increased their cash allocation from 3.5% to 3.9%, a 0.4 percentage point increase month-over-month, the largest increase since March. The net overweighting of global equities also decreased from 56% to 49%, reflecting that some institutions began to lock in profits after the global stock market rally.
However, this cannot be defined as a complete aversion to risk. The 3.9% cash position remains historically low, significantly lower than the long-term average of approximately 4.7%; the net overweighting of equities also remains high, indicating that institutions are merely reducing their risk exposure and have not withdrawn from the stock market on a large scale.
