Several academics have argued that excessive optimism leads to bad financing decisions.

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As far as the numbers themselves, bullish sentiment continues to stay above its historical average, but not so much that it implies excessive optimism.

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Should the shares breach key short-term technical support at the 16-level, we could see this excessive optimism unwind in the form of added selling pressure for the networking sector.

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This extreme preference for call buying may give some contrarians cause for concern, as it could indicate the presence of an excessive amount of optimism.

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The 21.3-point spread between bullish and bearish sentiment suggests that optimism remains below levels that would be considered excessive, however. (The bull-bear spread has topped 40 points nearly 70 times since 1987.) This suggests that though many individual investors are hopeful, concerns about the economy, interest rates and the federal deficit have not faded into the background.

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