Pundits and media commentators alike have taken this to mean that the bear market is over and that stocks should once again be the primary asset class for investors.

None of them know what they're talking about.

Over the last 18 months, the media has been rife with "bottom callers," all of whom have not only been wrong, but horribly, horribly wrong. In late 2007/ early 2008, Barron's interviewed 12 Wall Street strategists. All of them thought stocks would rise in 2008. The average forecast was a 10% gain (stocks instead sank 37%).

So it's with some concern that I noticed Barron's latest "Big Money Poll" (a survey of 100 money managers nationwide) showed an overwhelmingly bullish skew: 60% of respondents were either bullish or extremely bullish about stocks for 2009.

Generally speaking, any time all the "experts" agree on something, the exact opposite usually comes true. And right now the "experts" believe stocks are entering a new bull market... and that the US economy is back on track.

The point is that you shouldn't be swayed by sensational sound bites and headlines from lionized economists, but rather, stick to your long term investment objective.

If you're a twenty-something with a 401K account and you were trying to time your account in and out of the market, you may have very well missed the best 2 month move in equities you'll see in a lifetime. History has demonstrated that the majority of all upside in portfolio performance over a given time period is attributed to just a small fraction of very up trading days - and you may have missed them. For someone with a long time horizon that didn't need that cash for another 35 years, the best policy is probably to set it and forget it in the lowest fee passive index-type funds you can find in your plan.