Summary
Insider sentiment, as expressed by the weekly data from Vickers Stock Research, is in a near-term ‘best of times, worst of times’ mode this week. By that we mean that all of the major one-week sell/buy ratios from Vickers are a bit better this week, but not enough to help the eight-week ratios, which are all a bit worse this week and are either very near to or already in Vickers’ bearish-sentiment zone. Of note, the response of insiders to the military developments in the Middle East over the weekend are not reflected in Vickers’ current data. But end of day, our ongoing thesis in 2026 has been that insiders are not stepping up to the plate to buy equities, and that position seems defensible based on the 0.5% YTD gain for the S&P 500 and the 2.2% loss for the Nasdaq Composite. Looking at Vickers’ eight-week ratios on a sector basis, only three of the 11 S&P sectors are bullish – and they are the same three that were bullish last week: Consumer Staples, Financial, and Real Estate. From a shorter-term sector perspective, four sectors delivered a bullish one-week sell/buy ratio over the past week: Consumer Staples, Financial, Healthcare, and Real Estate. Within the Financial sector, volume was particularly notable, as Vickers recorded 180 transactions that fit the criteria for inclusion in our analysis. Conversely, tw
