The mood in the stock market by the end of last week was the type of stuff that contrarian investors dream about.

The S&P 500 has been stuck in a range for the better part of four months, and investors are paying up to protect against the possibility that the next big move is down. To a growing number of strategists, that pessimism is cause to expect the opposite.

The unrelenting selloff in software shares has left tech investors antsy enough that they’re starting to pony up for protection against yet another steep slide.

The latest bout of volatility in US equity markets highlights a risk that strategists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. have been warning about: “extreme crowding” in stocks that have rallied hard this year.

Signs of caution are emerging around high-flying tech shares. But that’s just making it cheaper to use options to bet on further gains in the stocks, Bank of America’s derivatives strategists say.

Technology stocks are rising so far, so fast that some investors are starting to position for the move to lose momentum.

The Russell 2000 Index last posted an all-time high on Nov. 8, 2021, and is still almost 3% from that level. Unless something drastic happens by Friday, it will mark the small-cap gauge’s longest streak without a record since the dot-com bubble.

For US traders, developing-country stocks have been a surprising source of returns as Donald Trump’s trade war roiled the S&P 500 Index.