If there's anything that could cure all the bullishness on Wall Street, Liz Ann Sonders thinks it's all the bulls.
The chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, by the way, is herself firmly in the camp of those who think the market's directions is decidedly higher, even after surging more than 20 percent in 2013.
But there could be a bump or two along the way, caused primarily by growing sentiment that the market has nowhere to go but up.
Speaking at the Schwab IMPACT 2013 investor conference—which this year has pulled together about 1,900 investment pros looking to gauge the market's direction—Sonders talked about "dumb money" indicators and "smart money" indicators and what they mean. (The Smart Money Confidence and Dumb Money Confidence indicators come from the Sentiment Trader site.)
(Read more: Smart money? Looks like it's really mom and pop)
The former group is generally considered the less sophisticated retail investor, while the latter is made up of institutional investors.
Recent surveys show retail getting more confident and institutional less confident. In the past, that often has led to market tops.
"I would like to see a bit of a pullback here," said Sonders, who repeated a message she conveyed in a recent report that the market could be in the midst of a "melt-up." "Fun as (melt-ups) might be, they don't tend to end well."
Recent surveys have indicated bullishness to be around cycle highs. The American Association of Individual Investors latest poll showed bullishness at 45.5 percent, well above the historical average of 39 percent. AAII members put equity allocations at six-year highs.
(Read more: S&P 500 is going nowhere, except down: SocGen)
The Investors Intelligence survey, which gauges sentiment from newsletter writers, has soared to a 2013 peak of 55.2 bullish, with just 15.6 percent negative on the market.
Still, Sonders said the investment community has been mostly "begrudging" in its attitude toward a market that continues on a sharp upward trajectory.
"There's certainly no cohort that's gone hog-wild in this market," she said. "I think we're no worse than sort of the middle innings of this thing."
(Read more: Why technicians see red flags for stocks)
Sonders points to a good forward outlook for price-to-earnings as well as the growing U.S. energy industry, accommodative monetary policy and a slow resurgence in American manufacturing for her long-term optimism.
In individual sectors, she likes industrials, consumer discretionary and tech.
—By CNBC's Jeff Cox. Follow him on Twitter @JeffCoxCNBCcom.
