Stock markets are in a long period of steady selling pressure, and that trend will likely continue for another three or fours years despite an expanding global economy, Bill Spiropoulos, CEO of CoreStates Capital Advisors told CNBC.
“We have been in a powerful secular bearmarket for the last ten years. We probably have three or four to go,” Spiropoulos said.
That does not necessarily mean, however, that a new all-time high for stocks isn't within sight, he said. “We’re only 12 percent from the high, and I think this is really a second opportunity for whether you’re a bear, bull, pig or chicken to re-think strategies."
Spiropoulos cautioned against a tendency to buy Treasurys in this bear market.
“Treasurys are not toilet paper, but by the same token you can’t be snug as a bug with the 10-year at 3.5 percent,” he said.
Spiropoulos expects interest ratesto return to the levels they were at prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and expects such a rise to hurt fixed income investors.
“The riddle is to look at where were rates before Lehman, that’s where we’re going back and if that occurs that’s going to exact a lot of pain on those folks that thought the fix was a safe space. Far from it,” Spiropoulos said.
He recommended a “long-short approach in every one of the major asset classes, whether it’s gold, currencies, futures”.
In the US stock markets investors could be long energy, the big oil, the pipelines, "anything to do with energy," he said. "And short the airlines, the transport, the truckers, anybody that’s going to get punished as we go into the next phase of the energy pricing complex".
“We’ve got lots of sins to pay for so people shouldn’t be surprised and unhappy,” Spiropoulos said of the global economy.
Still, he was optimistic about a recovery. “I think the global economy is going to continue to expand even though we’re in a secular bear market. There’s more to life than just the stock market,” he said.
