This made me laugh yesterday:

I had to ask Ivan if it was real because I do not watch CNBC and he responded ‘lol,no‘.

It is really too bad because there is a saying that ‘they don’t ring a bell at the bottom or the top’ and CNBC has actually figured out how to ring a bell at the bottom by airing ‘Markets in Turmoil‘. Don’t believe me?…Charlie has the stats.

Seeing that CNBC people read this blog, I imagine that Ivan’s ‘Bears in Turmoil’ idea will air sometime soon when we least expect it and are in a good mood constantly checking our brokerage balances. Thanks Ivan.

In the meantime, here we are with the S&P at all time highs and the bears are actually everywhere. Michael Batnick write about it today in a post titled ‘The Most Bullish Signal In The World‘.

According to Barron’s latest Big Money Poll, only 27% of money managers are bullish on the stock market over the next 12 months, which is the lowest reading in 20 years.

The bears always sound very smart when they sound off negatively about stocks and markets. I hear them all the time because I talk to smart people. But as Michael points out in his piece: The average 1-year return is 10.2%. The average 1-year return following an all-time high is 11.5%. This does not include dividends.

The line will not likely be straight, but bears are in need of some help from CNBC.

PS – This WSJ piece Twilight of the Stock Pickers: Hedge Fund Kings Face a Reckoning is a good read.

Today, clients have withdrawn money for three straight years from hedge funds that pick stocks, either betting for or against, according to research firm HFR Inc. That is the longest stretch of net outflows from such funds, once the growth engine of the industry, since HFR began tracking the data in 1990.

The reason isn’t hard to find: They’re no longer especially good at picking stocks.

Turns out, the highest people in the world, just are not having ‘fun’ anymore. This era can’t end soon enough.

Hedge Funds Are in Turmoil….For Realz!