Will Santa Claus come to Wall Street?

[progree]

1. Since you mentioned the S&P 500, I notice it set another new all-time closing high

at 4726, breaking the previous high of 4712 set Dec 10.

But there are those who have been telling us since 2014 that the market is a bubble and a casino where the House has the edge.

Yes, the market will inevitably crash, and maybe soon, like the near 50% crashes of 74-75 and the dot-com one, or 57% housing bubble crash (peak to trough declines of the S&P 500 in all cases), but when the market has 2 or 3 doublings and then gives back one of those doublings, it's still a lot lot better than bonds and cash (money market, CD's...).

The bigger gamble by far is trying to avoid outliving one's savings by settling for a 1%-3% return with a bonds / cash mix. Unless one has a really large nest egg and inflation isn't too bad.