Some Wall Street analysts have looked at that number and combined it with a recent $80 billion outflow from bond funds to make a case for the "Great Rotation" theme of money flowing out of fixed income and into stocks.
Yet that only tells part of the story.
For the year, bonds still have positive flows of $36 billion, and it seems like much of the money leaving fixed income lately has been going into low-yielding savings and money market funds. Data firm TrimTabs, in fact, reported those two accounts took in some $108 billion over the past five weeks.
(Read More: Great rotation still a 'long way' off)
The trends are consistent with a still-skeptical investing crowd.
"Those who have been in the market for the last several years are happy with the way things are. They were never the problem," said David Twibell, president of Custom Portfolio Group, a small investing shop in Englewood, Colo. that manages about $79 million for clients. "It was the investors sitting on the sidelines. I get the sense it really is plug your nose and buy some stocks."
That crowd has been burned not only by an adherence to traditional largely-owned stocks but also by a diversification strategy that has not held up well in a high-correlation market.
When a bedrock investing principle no longer delivers, it also helps shake confidence.
"You're seeing a lot of frustration with investors and a lot of confusion as well. At the end of the day, the only place you have been able to go for the last few years has been U.S. equities," Twibell said, in a statement not entirely true but representative of the dilemma likely to be facing investors as commodities, bonds and emerging market equities all languish.
"The S&P 500 has done very well, but I don't think a lot of investors who have diversified portfolios have done nearly as well," he said. "If you have a well-diversified portfolio, you're almost being punished for it."
Twibell thinks investors also are confused because of how much sway the Federal Reserve's actions seem to have over the market.
The U.S. central bank has been helping fuel the market rise through its $85 billion a month of bond purchases, as well as low interest rates that have helped companies buy back their own shares and help boost market prices further.
(Read More: Markets 'overreacted' to taper, ex-Fed chief says)
TrimTabs noted that in the second quarter alone, new cash takeovers and buybacks amounted to $257.1 billion, the highest total in nearly six years.
But investors find themselves hard-pressed to connect the dots, and wonder whether the market could come crashing down the way it has during the last two major bull markets, which coincided with the tech bubble and the real estate bubble.
"It's hard to have a long-term timeframe when the markets are bouncing around almost without a lot of fundamental basis," Twibell said. "I hope it doesn't continue like this, but it may well do so."
—By CNBC's Jeff Cox. Follow him @JeffCoxCNBCcom on Twitter.