In recent months I have read several commentators who propose that the current equity bull market is not over and that it has least one major upswing ahead. In addition, some say that the current situation most resembles the second half of the 1990s.

This article from the weekend edition of the Financial Times (pdf attached) goes into much more detail than any other I have seen. The author provides many political and global analogies from the 1990s and suggests that the time ahead of us in markets could resemble the period 1997-2000. As a fan of the yield curve as a guide to market peaks, I found the comparison of recent years with 1989-1997 particularly interesting.

Well, time will tell if this is 1997 all over again, but I am going carefully back into buy mode now that the historically weak summer six months is nearly over.

David Fuller's view

Many thanks for your email and the article. 

It is colourful and he is certainly a student of market history.  However, I think he liberally uses a procrustean methodology to make his numerous connections with the past.  In other words, more chopping than rhyming.  Moreover, in monitoring the minutiae, he loses sight of the big picture, at least as I see it.  

In 1997, developed markets were moving into the final years of the last secular bull market.  Today, I maintain that we are still in the foothills of the next secular bull trend.  However, if this is beginning to sound like a debate among analytical egos, the important point is that all three of us think that there is more upside in most stock markets following the recent correction.