Tech Ticker's Best of 2009: Guest of the Year, Barry Ritholtz: by Aaron Task
On March 10, Barry Ritholtz, CEO of Fusion IQ, came on Tech Ticker and said the "mother of all bear market rallies" was upon us.
Given the appearance was within 24 hours of what proved to be a historical market bottom, that call alone would have put Ritholtz in the running as our top guest of 2009 and winner of the coveted (and fictitious) "Purple Microphone" award. Ritholtz's call was more notable because, until then, he'd been steadfastly bearish on the market, meaning he was one of the few pundits to successfully navigate the downturn of 2008 and play the upside of 2009.
But unlike many other bears who turned bullish last spring, Ritholtz didn't abandon bullishness as the rally continued through the rest of 2009:
In May he said: Don't Call It a Suckers Rally
In mid-September he said: The Rally May Only Be in 6th or 7th Inning
And as of last week, he was still saying you have to give the rally the benefit of the doubt, suggesting the S&P could hit 1300 before faltering.
While other Tech Ticker guests were bullish on stocks in 2009, many did so because they believed a V-shaped recovery was afoot and that the housing market had bottomed. Ritholtz was able to walk the intellectual tightrope between being bullish on stocks and being skeptical about a robust recovery, especially in housing. As 2009 comes to a close, both calls are looking prescient.
Still, nobody's perfect. In mid-June, Ritholtz dismissed the "second-half recovery" story and said stocks were more apt to retest the March lows in the fall vs. hit new high, although he subsequently reverted back to the bullish (and right) side.
Link to the video is here:
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