﻿ Investors Are Missing the Bull Market-Kiplinger  Value Added
Investors Are Missing the Bull Market  Steven Goldberg  Fear of
more losses has kept many on the sidelines during most of the
historic run-up.  Suppose they gave a bull market and nobody
came? That pretty much sums up the response of individual
investors to the past year’s run-up in share prices. Left
stunned and frightened by the preceding collapse of share
prices, individual investors have lightened up on stock funds
and shoveled money into bond funds.  Those who exited stocks
have missed a breathtaking rally. Standard & Poor’s 500-stock
index returned 50% over the past 12 months through March 18.
During the same period, the MSCI EAFE index of developed-market
foreign stocks galloped 61%, the Russell 2000 index of small
companies soared 66%, and the MSCI Emerging Markets index surged
89%. It doesn’t get much better than that.  But fear of more
losses has been a more potent consideration for most investors.
The Leuthold Group, a Minneapolis-base