All of the reasons given for the equity market upside; corporate buy back programs, the Fed's forced carry trade to equities, and the always clever "wall of worry" theory, all have played a part in the rally. This may be news to the cable business programs searching for what we may have missed, the world is long stock. Professionals may be less enthusiastic but they are long too. Additionally, the proliferation of almost every form of financial product made available to institution and retail customers, from ETFs to alternative liquidity mutual funds, have at their very nature a means to execute, every so cautiously, a long bias. Their design has created a false sense of security for all investors that somehow their ability to easily scale active participation some how allows them to cheat risk. Billions of dollars in tiny gambles based on the notion of being able to move about in contrived market liquidity is still subject to exit event mechanics. Liquidity in joyful upward direction is different than liquidity in exit mode.
