A BULL MARKET THAT HAS YET TO HIT FULL STRIDE
Jan01

A BULL MARKET THAT HAS YET TO HIT FULL STRIDE

Since I started this project in January of 2011 of self-revelation and transparency in research, I have been sounding a somewhat one-sided horn of bullishness. This has, of course, been sprinkled with intermittent warnings of impending doom when the market has been overcome by investor greed. The message, however, has been decidedly bullish in nature from the onset.  Articles like this one: "6 Reasons To Be Long-Term Bullish," published in January of 2011. And charts like this one, published a few weeks later, talking about Nasdaq 5000 in the next few years cemented my bullish views from the very beginning. I've never wavered the entire time, insisting that the market had done its work poisoning the hearts and minds of the investor class to the point that it could move up unencumbered for the long-term.  Here we are starting 2014 with the market increasingly showing its bullish hand with an exuberance and ferocity that we haven't witnessed for sometime. I've had to step back frequently and ask myself whether this type of behavior should cause me to pullback on my bullish expectations? Every single time I receive an emphatic "NO" from the resident investment committee sitting within my mind.  A market that has gone up X amount of percentage points over X amount of years is never a reason to sell. Those pundits who consistently pound the mantra of overvaluation, irrational exuberance and pending economic collapse are a breed of investor who are pessimistic by nature. They have no choice but to believe in the mantras they chant like a voodoo princess in a grass skirt. Increased market caps only cause them to cling onto their fearful ways tighter without regard for any message the market is trying to send. Their only care is that a time will come when this all ends. What happens in between isn't of concern.  Those of you who weren't around in the 90s, do yourselves the favor and go read the Silicon Investor message boards from 1996-2000. You will see a strong bearish contingent who neither saw the extent of the bull market that they were in nor cared to profit from it. Instead, their goal was to create a sense of intellectual superiority by coming up with statistical viewpoints citing the reasons why the bull market shouldn't be. Each tick up in the averages reinforced their viewpoint. In 1999, they went silent. In 2000, the bull market was done.  We are nowhere close to a mass, full-fledged realization of the power of this bull market. Institutions remain underinvested. Retail investors still don't care about the stock market. Investors globally are still perfectly happy sitting...

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