When fund flows show investors bailing out of stocks at the rate they are now, it's usually bullish, Brian Barish, the Denver-based president of Cambiar Investors LLC, which oversees about $8 billion, wrote in a Sept. 15 e-mail.
"The five months after Lehman were an epic buying opportunity, yet investors liquidated en masse," Barish said. "Retail unfortunately tends to time things poorly. I don't expect the current situation to be all that different."