The recent headlines in the financial press would lead one to believe that the market is in a middle of a monster wave. In fact, if you look at a chart from the beginning of the year, it does look like a monster wave.
![](https://media.ycharts.com/charts/4dae5fb05520d2e4158e7e1d334ca815.png)
If you expand the horizon a little, the market doesn’t look as much like a monster wave but a lot of chop. The chart below starts at the beginning of calendar year 2018.
![](https://media.ycharts.com/charts/8400e9934c8fdd16f4466af2149ff29a.png)
Jeff Gundlach, chief executive of DoubleLine, argued last month that the market is in a bear market.
The US market isn’t the only market in a lot of chop. Large Foreign stock as represented by the MSCI EAFE has not regained it’s high set in January of 2018.
![](https://media.ycharts.com/charts/66925250a360034eeac35778a0697ed2.png)
Emerging Markets represented by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index has not regained it’s peak of January 2018.
![](https://media.ycharts.com/charts/f6058b8c195b9b58436bc6177919962e.png)
The market that has really surprised everyone is the bond market.
![](https://media.ycharts.com/charts/ad0d6c8fd90255317e61c9c8866dbe4b.png)
With a potentially disappointing first-quarter earnings season upon us we could continue to see more of this. With valuations far ahead of fundamentals, prudent, long-term investors should continue to limit their exposure to volatile asset classes.