Just how much power do central banks have to manipulate and direct what by now should be clear to anyone is the world's most centrally planned "market" in history? Here is a number from Bank of America's Chief Investment Officer demonstrating just that: 215.
As BofA writes this morning, "once upon a time (between 7th Sept 1929 & 22nd Sept 1954) it took 9,146 days for the S&P500 to reach a new high following a >20% bear drop." Fast forward to 2019, when the S&P 500 took just 215 days to recover and surpass its old high.
So now that the Fed has made it clear it will never allow the market to drop materially - as any significant drop and/or recession will jeopardize what little faith is left in the wealth effect and the Fed's powers - there is another number to keep in mind: 3,498.
Why? Because as of 2018, the S&P500 bull market was already the longest ever; however for the S&P500 to become longest and largest of all-time - which it may have no choice but to do in a world where every central bank is now all in on reflating risk assets - it will have to hit 3,498.
What is ironic is that with the S&P at all time highs, investor skepticism that anything about this rally is real continues to grow, and instead of fund flows into stocks, last week was another week of big inflows of $9.6BN but into bonds; meanwhile equities saw yet another week of redemptions ($0.3 billion), with total outflows from equities now a staggering $95 billion (more than all coming out of Long Only active equity funds), offset by $140 billion in bond inflows.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-03/bofa-1954-it-took-25-years-now-it-took-just-215-days