Sentiment Indicators

Sentiment indicators are data tools that measure the collective mood of market participants — whether investors are feeling fearful, neutral, or greedy at any given moment. Unlike technical indicators, which focus on price and volume, sentiment indicators capture the emotional state behind market movements. Common examples include the AAII Investor Sentiment Survey, the NAAIM Exposure Index, the Put/Call Ratio, and the VIX. When sentiment reaches extreme levels — either excessively bullish or bearish — it often signals an impending market reversal. This is the core principle behind contrarian investing: the crowd is frequently wrong at turning points.

At One-Signal, sentiment indicators form the foundation of our signal methodology. Rather than reacting to price action, our system reads the emotional positioning of the market and generates one clear directional signal — LONG or SHORT — before the NYSE opens.