Written by Manfred Hübner | 18 June 2020
Posted in Special research

What began on February 23, 2001 in the middle of the Internet bubble with an idea and 50 survey participants has now resulted in the 1000th sentiment survey: the sentix Global Investor Survey is celebrating a special anniversary! More than 5,000 investors from over 20 countries are now taking part in the sentix survey.

• sentix measures the mood in the financial markets for the 1000th time
• Meanwhile market leader in the field of Behavioral Finance surveys
• Information on investor behaviour is becoming increasingly important

The bursting of a bubble and the birth of an idea

The idea for sentix was born in the middle of one of the biggest speculation bubbles in the history of shares, the Internet bubble. There was much talk of "irrational exuberance", but how could something like this be measured and used for investment decisions? "Mood analysis was still in its infancy back then. There was no sensible data available", is how sentix inventor Manfred Hübner describes his dilemma at the time. "So we had to close the gap ourselves!"

Since February 2001, sentix GmbH has been questioning professional and private investors from over 20 countries as part of the Global Investor Survey. In the meantime, the sentix survey has become one of the largest and most highly regarded capital surveys worldwide.

Behavioral Finance - from fashionable topic to "must have

The launch of sentix coincides closely with the emergence of a new scientific discipline, behaviour-oriented capital market analysis. Investors and scientists quickly became enthusiastic about this, but fashion ebbed away at the beginning of the 2000s. There was a lack of practical tools to implement the findings, which have since won three Nobel prizes.

With sentix this has changed. Because sentix not only provides reliable information on the mood on the markets, but also on market knowledge and investor positioning. It is this triad of information that makes it possible to understand human behaviour. The timely, transparent publication of data in line with scientific standards was in turn a prerequisite for its application in asset management.

It is therefore not surprising that in the meantime well-known institutions from Germany and abroad, banks, insurance companies, asset managers, but also central banks and hedge funds, are obtaining data and taking it into account in their own decisions.

Especially in recent years, when fundamental certainties have tended to diminish, the importance of the human factor in the markets has lost none of its explosiveness or relevance. "Those who ignore sentiment in financial investments are missing an essential piece in the solution of the market puzzle", sentix CEO Hübner is convinced.

But not only data customers use the sentix expertise. With sentix Asset Management, sentix has its own investment boutique at the start, which manages its customers' money successfully, contrarily and consistently. So Sentix is not an academic ivory tower project, but was designed from the beginning from practice for practice.

Thanks to the survey participants

And this is highly appreciated by the survey participants, who have now been participating regularly for almost 20 years. Some participants have now reached over 900 (!), which is a unique achievement in a fast-moving capital market world characterised by short-term events. But somehow it is also typical again for the exciting field of sentiment and contrasting investment styles.

About sentix

sentix GmbH is a consulting company that specialises in providing real-time information on investor behaviour and investor psychology. The basis is one of the largest independent investor surveys worldwide (>5,000 participants). Aspects of Behavioral Finance become applicable and provide important explanations for market developments. The company is the leading independent provider of sentiment indices and behavioral finance data in Europe.