Contributed by: Angela Palacios, CFP®
Investors seem to be skeptical of the second longest bull market run since World War II. For a refresher, a bull market is when share prices consistenly rise. Below, we see a comparison of the longest bull markets since World War II. The green line is our current bull market run. We have now surpassed the duration of the run in the early 1950’s but aren’t even close to the longest run that occurred through the 1990’s.
The past 18 months have brought a fair share of hiccups in the market exhausting bullish sentiment, which is the percent of investors who have a bullish outlook for the coming six months. The S&P 500 has rallied strongly since the lows reached in February erasing negative returns for the year as of the writing of this piece. The following graph illustrates market sentiment among investors. The red line represents the S&P 500 while the blue line represents the percent of investors who are bullish (expecting upward price movement in the market). What’s unusual is that despite the recent rally investors remain skeptical and this usually isn’t the case. When markets rally this strongly bullish sentiment usually rises.
Market peaks don’t usually happen when bullish sentiment is this low.
Bull markets don’t simply die of old age.
Regardless of whether this market is loved or hated, the Center’s investment team continues to monitor the markets and the economy closely for signs of recession while remaining committed to a diversified investment strategy.
Angela Palacios, CFP® is the Portfolio Manager at Center for Financial Planning, Inc. Angela specializes in Investment and Macro economic research. She is a frequent contributor The Center blog.
Any opinions are those of Angela Palacios and not necessarily those of Raymond James. The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. Investing involves risk and investors may incur a profit or a loss.
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