So much for the investment experts.
Early this year, the accepted wisdom on Wall Street was that 1995 would be a generally lackluster time for stocks, with maybe a little oomph toward the end of the year.Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
Just how wrong should be clear from the major milestone that was passed this week when the Dow Jones industrial average broke through the 5,000 mark for the first time ever, just nine months after the market's most widely watched index passed through 4,000 points for the first time.
What an emphatic exclamation point on an unprecedented bull market that has seen stocks rise more than 30 percent this year and double in value since 1990.
The stock market's dizzying rise reflects more than just the powerful mix of strong corporate earnings and a tidal wave of cash into mutual funds and retirement plans.
It also reflects the widespread expectation that the White House and Congress will reach a final agreement on balancing the budget and that continued low inflation will encourage the Federal Reserve to make it easier to borrow money by lowering interest rates.
But there are a few worms in the apple.
One of them is that the vigorous corporate earnings result from a wave of corporate downsizings that has left many Americans without jobs and others fearful of the future and reluctant to spend their consumer dollars.
Another is the well-known tendency of investors to take their profits while they can and run, a habit that can easily lead to wide swings in the market if enough sheep follow the leaders.
Boom or bust, the best investment advice is still that given by Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, perhaps the most successful and powerful American businessman of his time - in the middle 1800s. Asked by a reporter what the stock market would do tomorrow, the commodore replied: "It will fluctuate, my boy. It will fluctuate."
The prudent investor is the one who does not expect the Dow to keep defying Sir Isaac Newton's law of gravity but keeps a few dollars tucked away in the mattress.