Fund-flow data can be a useful for analyzing where investor money is going and how fund-flow trends are correlated with asset-class performance. Between 1994 and 2001, equity flows were higher than bond flows, but all that changed after the dot-com crash when investors started losing confidence in stocks.
The 2007–2009 crisis on the graph illustrates how investor behavior is tied to market performance, even though the timing may not always be right. In 2009, as the stock market hit bottom, investors should have been buying cheap stocks, but instead bond flows increased. In 2012, stock inflows started to climb again. The upswing was short-lived, however, and stock flows have once again been on the decline since April 2014.
