The withdrawals this year were partly offset by money flowing into foreign stock funds and hybrid funds, which invest in both stocks and bonds. Investors seem more willing to trust in overseas markets, and a growing number are choosing so-called target-date funds, in which fund companies promise to choose the right mix of stocks and bonds depending upon when an investor expects to retire.

The figures come from the Investment Company Institute, a trade group of mutual funds that has been compiling the totals since 1984. They include estimates of trades through mid-December.

Before 2007, there had been net withdrawals from domestic stock funds only in 1988 and 2002.

The first of those years came after the 1987 crash, which scared many investors as the market fell more than 20 percent in one day. But it recovered all of that loss and more in 1988, and many investors learned from that experience that market declines presented buying opportunities, not reasons to sell. The assumption that stocks were sure to rise, at least in the long run, became widely accepted.

That confidence was challenged by the collapse of the technology stock bubble in 2000 and 2001, and in 2002 Americans were again net sellers of stock mutual funds. But the market rallied starting in late 2002, and by the next year Americans were back to investing in stock funds.

The stock market collapse in 2008 and early 2009 appears to have inflicted far more psychological damage  damage that may have been intensified by the collapse of home values and the deep recession that hit the country, and by the fact that many stocks had not recovered the highs they had reached in 2000. For perhaps the first time since the late 1970s, many Americans seem to have become pessimistic about the future of their country.