Quote from Port1385:
I did post this thread somewhat as a joke. However, this might be a logical turning point where we can say with a degree of confidence the bottom is in.
The stock market never bottoms when the economy bottoms. In fact, the stock market usually bottoms months before the economy actually bottoms. Then when the economy bottoms, there will be a period of time where it consolidates and then finally starts rising, but the $SPX will be rising quickly right before this actually happens. When the economy is finally on the rise where you can notice it, i.e. job expansion, then you missed out on some great opportunities.
We had our high volume selloff in 2008 and so I would look for a low-volume rise to occur in 2009. I would love to see a re-test of the 741 level which I think is likely to occur. However, anyone getting into the market right now will probably see a profit within 12 months.
So goes January, so goes the year. So goes the first 5 trading days of January, so goes January.
My gut instinct says there will be a better entry point later on in the year then right now. There will some initial bullishness and then a pullback or re-test. Mark my words though, if you go long now then in a year you will see a profit...