Ken Fisher on a "New Era" of above-average returns for stocks

At first post-2002 bulls were dismissed by academics and Wall Street sourpusses as not with it. Well, those who uttered the bearish New Era babble were the ones who weren't with it and should be relegated to the Siberia of commentators. But note that five years of above-average returns haven't yet generated any groundswell of thinking that we're now in some New Era of above-average returns.

That's bullish! It means sentiment hasn't turned euphoric, as it did in the late 1990s. Thus, there's room for more of a bull market ahead. I want to be the first to say we definitely are in a New Era of above-average returns. I'll keep buying stocks until we hear multiple pundits say we are entering a new period of high returns. That will be a time to sell.

When will this happen, that the consensus will turn almost uniformly bullish? I don't know, but I doubt it will be before 2009 starts. Hence, I'm expecting another above-average year ahead, an easy one.

~ Ken Fisher, "Another New Era," Forbes, December 10, 2007