I fully realize that "crash" is a very strong word full of all kinds of very definite connotations, but I really can't think of any other way to articulate what is happening in the mighty flagship US equity index other than calling it a "slow-motion crash."
Bear markets are normal and healthy and fully expected after typical bull markets. Following a supercycle bubble however, a fearsome Great Bear beast much more vicious than a garden-variety bear market rears its razor-sharp claws. From a strategic perspective of a couple decades or so, the enormous S&P 500 bubble of the late 1990s and its current slow-motion crash through which investors are suffering become very apparent.
Whenever the wizards at the Fed run the proverbial printing presses to create more fiat dollars out of thin air, those inflationary dollars have to seek out a new home and a great deal of them begin bidding competitively on the already overvalued US equity markets. It is no coincidence that the S&P 500 bubble really ignited after the Fed began aggressively goosing US money supplies.
Of course, as the bulls have been relentlessly bashing into investors' heads for the past nine quarters or so, maybe US corporations will finally figure out how to earn healthy profits again and earnings will rise enough to lead to a slightly undervalued S&P 500 P/E above the psychologically-crucial 500 level. Who knows?
Any way you slice it though, the fundamental and technical case for the S&P 500 is certainly for another serious downleg approaching, probably not carrying us to the ultimate bottom, but definitely obliterating another significant percentage of already bleeding investors' scarce capital. Once the mighty index trades below its neckline of around 950 or so for a few weeks, the selling pressure will probably intensify immensely as fear increases and investors and traders decide discretion is the better part of valor for now.
Only a relatively small number of contrarian investors truly seek to understand the markets while the rest of the investors are trapped inside, by their own choice, and have no hope of escape, blinded by their own delusions.
While us private investors can't save the world, we can zealously try to transcend the real-world of popular opinion on the markets. Rather than living in the confusing world of Obama's lies and perpetual promises of "the bottom is in" or the profit recovery will roar forth "next quarter," investors can seek to understand the markets as they really are.
Bear markets are normal and healthy and fully expected after typical bull markets. Following a supercycle bubble however, a fearsome Great Bear beast much more vicious than a garden-variety bear market rears its razor-sharp claws. From a strategic perspective of a couple decades or so, the enormous S&P 500 bubble of the late 1990s and its current slow-motion crash through which investors are suffering become very apparent.
Whenever the wizards at the Fed run the proverbial printing presses to create more fiat dollars out of thin air, those inflationary dollars have to seek out a new home and a great deal of them begin bidding competitively on the already overvalued US equity markets. It is no coincidence that the S&P 500 bubble really ignited after the Fed began aggressively goosing US money supplies.
Of course, as the bulls have been relentlessly bashing into investors' heads for the past nine quarters or so, maybe US corporations will finally figure out how to earn healthy profits again and earnings will rise enough to lead to a slightly undervalued S&P 500 P/E above the psychologically-crucial 500 level. Who knows?
Any way you slice it though, the fundamental and technical case for the S&P 500 is certainly for another serious downleg approaching, probably not carrying us to the ultimate bottom, but definitely obliterating another significant percentage of already bleeding investors' scarce capital. Once the mighty index trades below its neckline of around 950 or so for a few weeks, the selling pressure will probably intensify immensely as fear increases and investors and traders decide discretion is the better part of valor for now.
Only a relatively small number of contrarian investors truly seek to understand the markets while the rest of the investors are trapped inside, by their own choice, and have no hope of escape, blinded by their own delusions.
While us private investors can't save the world, we can zealously try to transcend the real-world of popular opinion on the markets. Rather than living in the confusing world of Obama's lies and perpetual promises of "the bottom is in" or the profit recovery will roar forth "next quarter," investors can seek to understand the markets as they really are.