This is not an EWI promo, just an observance.  I am listening to he of the infinite patience and big picture perspective, the thoroughly lampooned (by bull wise guys and emboldened trend followers now promoting their own genius) Robert Prechter speak about hope and fear.

First, we’ll insert our weekly chart of the S&P 500, for reference.  At the end we’ll include the monthly cycle chart and a sentiment cycle chart from Sentimentrader.com by way of NFTRH 285.  People can then form their own conclusions.

“Fear is different from hope; hope takes a long time to build and a long time to dissipate.  That’s why you get these slow stock market tops.  Fear is very different; it crystalizes, it builds and builds, people deny it through most of the way.  They finally give up, capitulate and… you’re done.

And you start up amidst an incredible fear… shared general fear.  The fundamentals then of course are very negative so people point to those as the reason why the market can’t go up and usually you get the best gains from the bottom day over the first year or two in percentage terms.  That’s the best time, if you can possibly catch it…”