Is The Bull Market Over- 5 signs to watch!

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I realize stocks seem both frustrating and frightening these days. But the reality is this: They are still the best performing asset class going all the way back to the great depression. To put this in perspective, it helps to take a look at some research compiled by Salomon Smith Barney which looked at how investors weathered the 1973-’74 Bear Market (which looks very much like this one.) Take two investors each of whom put $100,000 into the market — the S&P 500 index — at the beginning of 1973. By September of 1974 (when the market finally bottomed out) these investors holdings were worth just over $57,000. If at that point you gave up, threw in the towel, and put your money into a safe haven with a guaranteed return of 5 percent, you would just about have your original $100,000 back 10 years later. But if you’d stuck with the S&P, 10 years later, you’d have almost $250,000.

MARKET DATA MARKET INDICATORS BLOOMBERG NEWS

If you look back at the time period from 1926 to 2000 -- years that included a major depression, many recessions, and a fair number of bear markets -- stocks as measured by the S&P 500 had an average annual return of 11.2 percent. That beats the pants off the performance of long-term government bonds (5.2 percent) or U.S. Treasury bills (3.8 percent).

History also tells us that the most profitable time to buy the S&P 500 index -- the best broad bellwether for North American stocks -- is when industrial growth is slowing, because that's when value emerges.....

Once we witness seven or eight successive days of rising prices in really heavy volume we'll have a pretty good idea that the next BULL is for REAL......Quote..Patrick Bloomfield...globe..Aug 2 2001...