Retail sentiment as a contrarian signal: do you trade against it?

Brokers publish the percentage of retail traders long or short, and the contrarian instinct is to fade the crowd. It works until it doesn't — retail is often on the right side of trends — and the signal needs heavy filtering.

What's your experience?

• the sentiment source you watch
• the filters that make it usable
• the time the crowd was right and you weren't

The risk-on risk-off guide frames sentiment in context.