“From ‘Wall of Worry’ to ‘Slope of Hope'”

After climbing a well-fortified ‘wall of worry’ since late 2022, the market finally rolled over into a bear market in early 2025, according to our Risk Gauge.

Rather than embrace the bear, investors now cling to a long and growing list of reasons to not sell stocks, as the market slides down this ‘slope of hope’.

The current bear market rally is part of the ‘slope of hope’, encouraging the bulls to stay invested and add to their holdings. At the same time, the bears are getting stopped out as the market grinds higher.

Given the still bearish Risk Gauge, we are sticking to our plan of selling between 5400-5600, perhaps as far as 5800.

At the same time, we are laser focused on identifying the potential future leaders of the next bull cycle.