Bob Brinker

Bob Brinker, the very successful stock market expert that used to be on the radio, was a triumphant bull for at least 9 years. He would ask listeners who called in with hare-brained schemes about retiring at age 35 if they are prepared to ride out a bear market for a long period of time.

Brinker, who always shies away from directing people (do this, do that kinda stuff) was well known for the time he suggested to his millions of listeners that the "correction" coming in the market could be as much as 40%. But it wasn't so much that he made bold predictions, but more that he also suggested that the market could stay down for an indefinite period.

He had some rather unique and thoughtful methods of making his predictions. For example during the nineties, he warned that the real sign that a crash was coming for him was the push from the exchanges for extended hours, with both NASDAQ and NYSE announcing plans for adding hours to the trading day.

At that time, Brinker pointed out that the last time the NYSE expanded its coverage (this time additional floor space at the exchange so they could add more brokers) was....you guessed it....1929. So he based his wild predictions on some pretty scientific data.

Bob also questioned why the exchanges were doing this prior to the Y2K roll-over, implying that there may be more difficulties in the markets than has been disclosed.

He didn't made an absolute sell call, but Brinker was definitely urging caution in the teeth of this market. From the tone of his conversations it sounded very much like he expected to see the drop to continue for several months into the future.

At that time Bob was telling listeners to use "dollar cost averaging" to buy into a high-priced market such as that one (after all, he felt certain there was a bubble going on that could burst at any moment.) To one caller, he explained that if he should buy in to the market using dollar cost averaging, and the market should turn upside down during that same month, that the caller should "reverse this order"--in other words, pull his most recent purchase out.

Brinker sounds like he was a wise man and I wish I could have heard more of him myself. At this time, I believe Bob Brinker is retired.