Wall Street Week Ahead: Bulls, bears and wallflowers

New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street in New York, New York, United States. Español: Bolsa de Nueva York en Wall Street en Nueva York, Nueva York, en los Estados Unidos. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's another one of those moments that always follow a big move in the stock market: Either you're a believer – or you're not. Right now, the market has its fair share of both. The S&P 500 is up 12 percent so far this year. Through July, it had its best first seven months since 2003 and its second- best seven-month run since 1998. That sounds like a bull market. But there is clearly a disconnect between the way markets have performed and the high level of caution among many investors. That is mainly due to the perception that things have the potential to go horribly wrong - incredibly fast.

The danger for investors is that they focus too much on the potential risks, such as the break-up of the euro zone, and end up getting left on the sidelines when markets move higher as they have done since the start of June, said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at ING Investment Management, in New York. "We are in a bull market," he said. "The mistake investors have made is too much attention on global risk, and not enough attention on fundamentals that are very resilient." ... Continue to read.

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