Hedge funds are pouring money into stocks as individuals exit at the fastest rate in a year, a sign to professional investors that the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is poised to rise yet further, according to Bloomberg, citing data from the Investment Company Institute.

About $37.3 billion has been pulled from U.S. mutual funds since August, according to the ICI. Hedge funds - which lost half as much on average as the S&P 500 since stocks peaked in October 2007 - boosted bets to the highest level since the end of that year in the third quarter and have kept buying, according to data compiled by Goldman Sachs, industry consultants and Bloomberg.

Data compiled by organisations such as Hedge Fund Research and Credit Suisse/Tremont shows that hedge funds, which suffered their worst average year on record in 2008, have rebounded, while equities have surged since spring of this year, buoyed by heavy monetary expansion by a number of central banks. The past six months have seen a revival of hedge fund launches in Europe, the US and Asia.