Saying that investors have gotten too bullish on emerging markets, Kenneth Fisher sold more than $1 billion in emerging market exchange-traded funds in the first quarter.

“This is about sentiment having gotten too ebullient, too sanguine,” Fisher tells Bloomberg. “Things that lead a bull market early on reach a period at some point, which we think is about now, where they start to run out of steam.”

Emerging market stocks have soared since late 2008, and Fisher says that “people were seeing this as a near-certain place for success, which is always dangerous.” Bloomberg reports that his firm is shifting money into the technology and energy sectors.

Fisher says his shift away from emerging markets isn’t an indictment of the economies of emerging market nations, but instead of his firm looking for the “beginning of shifts to somewhat different leadership” in the markets.

Fisher also reiterated his view that 2011 will be more of a year for stock-pickers than for the broader market, saying that the year will likely be a “resting period” for the global stock rally.