(New York)

It is not pleasant to think about, but investors may need to face reality—the bear market may have arrived this winter. Stocks are already well into a correction and the immediate path forward doesn’t seem bright. All that said, not all the indicators are showing a bear market to come. Bank of America has assembled 19 indicators which have forecasted bear markets in the past. Right now, only 13 of the 19 indicators have been tripped, meaning the market may have room to move higher. While 13 out of 19 may sound high, this level was usually reached two years before the peak in prices in previous bear markets.

FINSUM: If you buy into these types of indicators, the big x-factor is how quickly the other 6 could be tripped. The big problem, of course, is that the returns at the end of a bull market tend to be the strongest, so one does not want to take all their chips off the table.