With the S&P 500 sitting less than 1% from its all-time high and on track for its fourth straight monthly gain, cautious investors can't help but wonder how long they can still ride on the back of this aging bull before everything comes crashing down.
"Unlike any in at least the last 50 years, the contemporary bull market has coexisted with a tall and persistent Wall of Worry," Paulsen said in a note to clients."The Worry Gauge suggests most investors already expect, and are prepared for, a difficult future." It turned out the gauge has been in its top-two quintiles almost 75% of the time during this bull market. The reason for the degree of fear is that investors have witnessed many worrisome economic signs in this expansion, including sluggish growth rate and job gains as well as the record low global interest rates, Paulsen pointed out.
This is the master illusion of wall street.