Available positioning and flow data show that, in the months after July 14, 2022, professional investors largely did not rush back into equities and instead stayed cautious and underweight:

• Bank of America’s July 2022 Global Fund Manager Survey (covering early July and published July 19) reported investor cash levels at the highest since 9/11 and global equity allocations at the lowest since the Lehman crisis, with a net 44% underweight in equities and 6.1% cash. A net 58% of respondents said they were taking lower-than-normal risk, indicating very defensive positioning rather than a rapid re‑risking into stocks. (financialexpress.com)
• Subsequent surveys show that this caution persisted and even deepened. By September 2022, BofA found stock allocations at a record underweight of about −52% and cash at a record overweight (around 62%), again highlighting that global fund managers remained heavily underweight equities months after the podcast date. (forbes.com)
• The market backdrop reinforced this stance: 2022 saw a broad equity bear market, with the MSCI World index down 17.7% and the S&P 500 dropping about 25% from its January peak to an October low, then ending the year −19%. This environment encouraged capital preservation rather than aggressive equity buying. (en.wikipedia.org)
• Even when equity inflows picked up in late October 2022 (largest weekly inflow since March), BofA’s “bull & bear” indicator remained at max bearish, suggesting flows were occurring against a backdrop of lingering pessimism and not a broad, confident rush back into stocks. (ktwb.com)

Taken together, these data support Friedberg’s claim that, over the near term after mid‑July 2022, most investors and portfolio managers stayed cautious and underweight equities while monitoring macro and geopolitical risks, rather than rapidly moving large amounts of capital back into stocks.