Avery Shenfeld, the chief economist at CIBC World Markets, issues that shop's monthly portfolio strategy today [PDF] and says it seems about the right time to make sure you've got at least some money back in the market:
We’re in the early stages of a bull run for stocks, but as any rodeo fan will tell you, bulls don’t offer a smooth ride. Markets suddenly jettisoned their fear of depression and looked ahead to an economic recovery. We too see the economy reviving before year end, but the rally looks a tad early and more vigorous than what we typically see when there’s only limited evidence of such a turning point.
That makes it imprudent to throw all of your chips on the table with a heavy overweight in equities. We could see a breather or partial pullback on soft economic news in the quarter ahead. But there’s enough medium-term upside to be benchmark weighted in stocks. Because ultimately, the market is right in anticipating earnings growth in 2010 and beyond, even if headwinds associated with earlier excesses in lending leave the first year of a global recovery running at a tepid pace.