Some of the biggest permabulls keep saying things like - “The retail investor is just not participating in this rally.” “Just wait until the retail investor comes in.” “Retail investors better get on board.” I never hear what evidence they have to support those comments. Maybe because evidence and fact is less important than hyping the market. Maybe they think the mere act of having it come out their mouth makes it true. It’s easy to take their moment on CNBC or Bloomberg and come up with hollow statements but some facts like the margin debt levels might conflict with the idea that retail investors have missed the run. Besides, I never liked calling the retail investor “dumb money.” A lot of retail investors have a habit of outperforming the index and the track record of smart money does not indicate that they are so perfect. Let’s not forget that the supposedly “dumb money” is usually represented by financial professionals called stock brokers. So when I hear the bulls calling all retail investors and when those calls come out of no where and they are repeated by a bunch of different people all at the same time, I get suspicious.