I have some fantastic news for you…

“At a time when the U.S. stock market is still flirting with record highs, more than half of Americans are standing on the sidelines,” USA Today reported last week.

You might ask, “Why is that fantastic news? Doesn’t that mean that most people missed the stock market boom?”

[ad#Google Adsense 336×280-IA]I look at this a different way… The way I see it, millions of stock investors are still sitting on the sidelines.

This is important news…

The stock market typically doesn’t peak until the largest percentage of the population is in the market.

Today, we are in the opposite situation.

Looked at one way, we have the lowest percentage of families in stocks in decades…

The chart below comes from the Survey of Consumer Finances by the Federal Reserve. This survey is only done every three years, but I like it because you can learn a lot about the long-term trends with Americans and their money.

We obviously don’t have the 2016 number yet… but based on the most recent number that we do have, fewer families hold stocks than we have seen in decades.

As I’m sure you know, the stock market last peaked in 2000… While we don’t have a data point in the chart for the year 2000 (just 2001), I’m certain that the highest percentage of Americans were invested in stocks in the year 2000.

Why? Because – at the peak in the stock market – the highest percentage of people are in stocks.

When you look at this chart, you can see that we are nowhere near that level today. You can see that Americans have not loaded up on stocks yet. But they will.

USA Today’s story saying that most people are not in stocks didn’t surprise me.

What it does tell me is that – even after six straight years of gains – stocks can go higher.

We can be sure that there are plenty of folks still on the sidelines, not in the market yet. The thing is, when this stock market boom finally peaks, a good number of those folks WILL be in the market. You can count on it.

My friend, the opportunity in U.S. stocks has not peaked yet… Everyone is not in yet.

We still have plenty of upside potential in U.S. stocks.

Make sure you take advantage of it.

Good investing,

Steve

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Source: Daily Wealth