State Street Institutional
Investor Indicators
Investment insights based on facts, not surveys

The State Street Institutional Investor Indicators provide investors, policymakers, and the public with insights into the aggregated and anonymized positioning, risk appetite, and portfolio carbon exposures of thousands of institutional investors around the world, representing trillions of dollars in assets.

State Street Institutional Investor
Risk Appetite Indicator

The Risk Appetite Indicator quantifies the degree to which the trading patterns of institutional investors are risk seeking or averse, on a scale of -100% (most risk averse) to 100% (most risk seeking).

Key Facts
  • The Institutional Investor Risk Appetite Indicator measures the buying and selling of risky assets across 22 dimensions of risk
  • These range across asset classes: equities, fixed-income, cash, and foreign exchange
  • Key dimensions include stock versus cash allocations, cyclical versus defensive equities, high-yield versus investment-grade corporate bonds, and US Dollar currency flows
  • Released monthly
Our latest report

Holdings

  • Equity allocations have reached their highest level in 18 years, with investors continuing to add to stocks and reduce cash holdings.
  • Bond allocations remain low and broadly unchanged.
  • Portfolios are heavily tilted towards US equities, technology and styles such as Quality, Growth, Beta and Large Caps, with positions extended and expensive.

 

RiskAppetite

 

  • The State Street Risk Appetite Index has moved down from risk seeking to neutral after six months, as flows shifted into defensive stocks and the US dollar, while cyclicals, commodities, emerging market currencies and high yield currencies were sold.
  • Investors are not turning risk averse; they continue to buy high yield bonds and tech stocks, showing selective risk taking rather than broad caution.

 

Risk Appetite