Hard to tell. If sideline cash is from financial transactions, it just moves back and forth. If money is earned/transferred from elsewhere and then earmarked for the financial markets for later deployment, it could be increasing. In any event, not a metric you'd be likely able to measure.
Rich people and institutions dont get to be rich people/institutions by parking billions of dollars in 0% earning cash...that would be kind of silly...
There was a lot of monies on the sidelines waiting to be invested. Where are you going to put your monies for the best returns? Asia? Europe? Latin America? US? The most obvious choice is the US and I do not think it merits an explanation of why? When I say a lot of monies waiting to be invested, I was not only implying only US citizens waiting but, foreigners from other countries as well. Rich people did not become rich by being dumb.
But they also didn't get rich by chasing investments that don't exist. At the very least, they would buy short-term bonds. Warren Buffett has $128 billion in cash right now. Not sure if it's actual cash, or short-term bonds. Perhaps he hasn't saw something he liked in a while. He's waiting for a correction perhaps.
Buffet is known to be a "value" investor... wants to buy things he believes are worth more than the marketplace is pricing them. Have heard recently that he "can't find value-enough" to put his cash capital to work in equities, so waiting patiently on the sidelines. Sometimes you can get away with "chasing things higher". Often, however, that is a trap. Buffet mostly prefers to not play that game.
Buffet has way more money than places to put it but he is rare and is also cheap with his money. Also see how Buffet accounting defines cash as short term securities often count as cash if they are liquid. He could buy a few more business but he does not need to. His example.is not the best. Dubai was sitting on billions and bought sports teams and buildings and sponsorships so their money is working for them. ther are always places to park.cash or invest. The SP500 is not the whole world. I would rather make 2% year in risk free securities than have cash sitting doing nothing. Thst is what wealthy people do.
Let me show you a magic trick: Apple has an approximately $1.30747 trillion market cap. Apple currently has a $298.28 share price. Which means that there are approximately 4,383,364,623 of Apple shares outstanding ($1.30747T / $298.28) = 4,383,364,623 Now imagine for a second there is a scenario where no one wants to sell their shares of Apple stock at $298.28 because they all believe the company has such a wonderful future, but I want to buy 1 share. So I come along, and I am required to lift the ask by 1 cent, from $298.28 to $298.29 in order to attract a seller to give me 1 share of Apple stock. By me lifting the ask by 1 cent, my $298.29 single-Apple share purchase has "created" $4,383,364.62 in new wealth cumulatively across all Apple shareholders accounts. (All shares outstanding multiplied by 1 cent). Once you understand how the implications of this math, a lot of other things will make sense to you, such as why investing "stories" are so important, why CNBC is a matter of national security at this point, the power of buybacks to goose stock prices, etc, etc.
%% Good points, Steve M; + tech tends to be even stronger in 4th quarter+ 1st quarter. AS far a as sarcasm on CNBC, funny TV mostly.[ Cant really blame it all on FED; US stock market. up=trended for 100 years/+ with out the FED, fine.] Not a prediction; its a trend comment..........................................................................................................