HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY, BULL MARKET! WHAT’S NEXT? FOUR REASONS TO “LOVE” THE MARKET AT THESE LEVELS, AND FOUR REASONS TO “LEAVE” IT!
Earlier this month (March 9th), the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, a “proxy” for U.S. stock markets, celebrated the eighth anniversary of the end of its most recent “bear market” decline. Its chilling effects still fresh in many investors’ memory, the bear market that ended eight years ago will long be remembered as a nasty side effect of “The Great Housing/Credit Crisis”. The stock market’s violent decline took just seventeen months from start to finish, but it took (-57%) of the market’s capital as well (Source: www.marketwatch.com). Since its merciful end on March 9th, 2009, when the Index closed at a meager 676.53, investors have enjoyed an uninterrupted “bull market”, and at the close of the market last evening, the S&P 500 Index sits +249% higher than its start.
