The Spectrem Millionaire Investor Confidence Index rose 15 points in February to 17, reaching mildly bullish territory for the first time in more than three years.

This is the highest level the index has seen since reaching 14 in October 2007. February’s advance also represents the second-largest gain ever for the index, surpassed only by its 17-point rise in May 2009.

The Spectrem Affluent Investor Confidence Index, meanwhile, advanced 7 points to a neutral reading of 4.

The Spectrem Affluent Investor Confidence Index is based on 250 monthly interviews with the financial decision-makers in households with $500,000 or more in investable assets. The Spectrem Millionaire Investor Confidence Index is based on a subset of the overall survey group.

In response to an open-ended question about the news story most affecting their economic outlook, affluent investors in February cited: international problems (29 per cent); the political environment (9 per cent); unemployment (8 per cent); health care reform (7 per cent); the economy (6 per cent); stock market conditions (5 per cent) and tax cuts (3 per cent). 

Those citing international problems rose from 5 per cent in November 2010, the last time this question was asked, while those citing the political environment fell from 46 per cent.

Millionaires were more focused on international problems (32 per cent) than the affluent but slightly less focused on the political environment (8 per cent).