After about 12 years of bearishness on stocks, David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates, turned bullish two years ago, according to
CNBC.
And he's not too sure about some of those he left behind. "There are segments of the perma-bear community that literally live their lives on the lunatic fringe," he wrote in a commentary obtained by CNBC.
The S&P 500 index has tripled since bottoming at 667 in March 2009.
"This is heavier than religion, the tea party or Red Sox Nation for that matter," Rosenberg said. "To these fanatics, if the market rallies, it is due to some unholy alliance somewhere, and if the market dives, it is a case of good triumphing over evil."
Some investors are feeling cautious about stocks, as the bull market approaches its seventh year.
"Investors are looking for validation that the economy is, in fact, as strong as advertised," Peter Sorrentino, a fund manager at Huntington Asset Advisors, told
Bloomberg. "The market may struggle to find its footing here in the first couple of days until we get some more data points out."
Former Forbes Senior Editor Robert Lenzner isn't too worried. "Don't fight the [bull] market, because up markets in stocks last far longer in length than down markets," he wrote in an article for Forbes. "Over time the bulls have it all over the bears according to the facts of history."
Bull markets on average last about 97 months each, according to Morningstar. This bull market, which began in March 2009, has lasted almost 70 months.
"By comparison, bear markets since the 1930s have an average duration of only 18 months," Lenzner says.
"This suggests that not including the period of the Great Depression, when the market index lost 83 percent of its value, that if you had the staying power and could not possibly pick the market bottom, you were far better off sticking it out through the bad times."
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