INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The 20% threshold strikes people as arbitrary, spurious, an invention
Pundits disagree on everything from the role of psychology in defining market eras to how strict you should be about the parameters for past
Several objections pertain to measurement
One is how to date the rally this one supposedly supplants -- the dot-com bubble
Traditionally, statisticians have placed the start of the tech rally in October 1990, the bottom of a slide in the SP 500 that got very
close to 20% but not all the way
The best argument for considering 1990 a break in a bull run is probably that much of the old guard considers it so
Different researchers give different verdicts -- sometimes at the same shop
For better or worse, those eight 100ths of a point have been glossed over by history, leaving the 1990s run to begin in 1990.
Another
analytical point: Who cares Equities have been in good shape for years -- maybe leave it at that
at Pension Partners LLC, said by phone
Sure, stocks are a lot closer to highs at the moment than they are to a 20% decline
been nine years, five months and 12 days since the SP 500 hit a 13-year low on March 9, 2009, the date considered by many to be the start of
Not so fast, say skeptics
According to them, a bull market begins not when the stocks reach a bottom, but after an interval of recovery --like when the market
breaches its previous high
