Vacillating Bulls and Dogmatic Bears

Joshua Brown The Reformed Broker April 12, 2010

To complement the slow but persistent grinding higher of the major stock market indices, we've now got two new groups of market commentators - the Vacillating Bulls and the Dogmatic Bears.

I'm trying very hard to tune out both camps at this juncture in an effort to hear what the market is telling me. It is not easy, they are everywhere.

The vacillating bulls are predominantly coming from the the asset management/fund complex and they are typically those who have been underinvested or too risk averse. Their public proclamations of "why fight it" and "ok, NOW I've finally gotten the economic confirmation I've been waiting for" are a distraction. I do not view their recent prominence in the mainstream press as a market positive, their utterances smack of capitulation.

The dogmatic bears are less threatening to the market's rise than the neo-bulls are, because they are basically repeating themselves ad nauseum at this point and very little of their dogma is any different from what it was a year ago and even two years ago. Their missives are laden with more dropping shoes than the closet of Imelda Marcos in an earthquake. Yawn.

The vacillating bulls should spare themselves these embarrassing media appearances, they are not "furthering their brands" as they say in PR Speak. The dogmatic bears should likewise cease their spewage and rethink a few of the tentpoles of their argument - to continue the rhetoric against the backdrop of comps turning positive across most surveys would at this point cross over into slapstick territory.

It is one thing to change your mind or stick to your guns, it is quite another to become a public spectacle while doing so.

The Reformed Broker is a blog about Wall Street, the economy, politics and anything else. Joshua Brown has been managing money for high net worth clients, charitable foundations, corporations and retirement plans. (More »)

Vacillating Bulls and Dogmatic Bears

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