Who’s more scared right now?

This question was just posed in the Daily Chat area on TradingWithCody.com, and I’ve been getting variations of this question all week:

Everyone I know and here as well seems to be bullish .. even me. A thought comes to mind if we need to hedge portfolio. I would love to hear what you folks think of.. cody & others as well..

Let me rephrase that and ask you guys for your input: “Who’s more scared right now, the bulls or the bears?” I’ve been saying for weeks now that the bulls still seemed worried to me, if not outright scared, while the bears have seemingly been confident that another big sell off is just a matter of time near these levels. Figuring out “Who’s more scared right now” is a great contrarian tell for the near-term market action. That is, when everybody says that the bulls are scared (usually that response comes when the markets are at near-term lows) it’s a very bullish near-term indicator. Likewise, when the everybody says the bears are scared, that can be a great indicator that the market is about to sell off.  Think of it as a variation of Warren Buffett’s old adage “Be greedy when others are fearful. Be fearful when others are greedy.”  Anyway, my take on the set up remains that the bulls are worried and the bears are confident of another sell-off despite the market being at highs. But I could be wrong.

So who’s more scared right now? The bulls or the bears?

And don’t forget out weekly chat session at 2pm EST today at http://tradingwithcody.com/chat.