Smart money rushes in

As equity fund investors pulled out, "smart money" hedgers rushed in. The latest Commitments of Traders data shows that hedgers were holding more than $23 billion worth of net long positions in major equity index futures as of Tuesday. That's among their biggest bets in the past decade. The Backtest Engine shows there were 20 other weeks in the past decade with a net long position more than $20 billion. Two months later, the S&P 500 was higher after all 20 weeks, averaging +4.7%. The data did not work as well in prior decades.