Investor sentiment has been on the rise for much of 2012, but Blackstone’s Byron Wien says it may not necessarily be the contrarian indicator it usually is. 

In a piece for Gulf News, Wien discusses various improvements in the U.S. economy. He also says things have improved in Europe, with policymakers now “emulating the US during the 2008 crisis, providing funds to avoid a meltdown, a reversal from previous policy focused on controlling the rise in inflation through a restrictive monetary policy.”

“However,” he adds, “the mood has changed to optimism. Most investors have been slow to put their money to work and, as a result, many hedge funds and long-only investors are lagging behind the performance of the major indexes. Ordinarily, optimistic sentiment readings presage a market correction, but with many investors looking for opportunity to increase their exposure that even a minor downdraft gets cut short by the flood.”