When the people who invest billions of dollars for a living get nervous, they tend to start stockpiling cash, anticipating a market collapse. And they are feeling very nervous now!

We should emphasize that this doesn’t mean that you should be nervous; you should invest your money steadily in low-cost index funds and not worry about the looming downturn that could incinerate your meager portfolio for years to come, because you have responsibly set aside ample savings for the meantime. The last thing you should do is pull your money out! Don’t be a fool! We are simply pointing out to you the observable fact that big money managers with control over hundreds of billions of dollars are now hoarding more cash than they have since just before the last time our global economy collapsed. Bloomberg reports that “cash levels jumped to 5.5 percent [in the latest survey], the highest since December 2008, when the world was still in the midst of a major financial crisis sparked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers.”

Also, we currently have the highest percentage of large investors “taking out protection against a fall in equities since February 2008.”

Of course, extrapolating from these facts the conclusion that the world’s most plugged-in money managers are more nervous about a market collapse than they have been since right before the last big market collapse, and they would know, and therefore there may soon be a big market collapse, is far too simplistic. There are many factors in investing, and whatnot. Just because the people who cause the markets to collapse think the market might collapse soon does not mean it will.

[Photo: AP]