Fear, Greed and the End of the Rainbow: Guarding Your Assets in the Coming Bear Market

Canadian investor Sarlos, sounding like a voice of doom, predicts a bear market in the next year or so that will last into the coming millennium. This dire warning, with brief histories of market panics and a short course in economic theory, forms the bulk of his cautionary tale. The basic point, which Sarlos repeats like a mantra, is that a bear must come because there has never been a sustained bull market. He goes even further, arguing that the bear will be one of the hardest ever because history shows that longer bulls lead to longer bears, and the current bull has had a 15-plus-year ride. Given his premise, the strategies Sarlos offers in the last quarter of the book don't seem that useful. ""Don't buy at the top"" of a bull market, he advises, and don't ""expect to make money in a bear market."" He also writes that if you can afford to wait out a bear, keep your money in stocks, but if you need cash soon for retirement, reduce your equity holdings. These and similar tips (e.g., diversify) make up the rest of this shallow guide. (May)