We appear to be in what's called a "range-bound" market. It's the volatile sideways action that follows a major bull market and can last 10 to 15 years. During such periods the market goes up, it goes down, it bounces around, but the end result after many years is a zero gain or even a loss.

You see, from 1982 to 2000 we had a major bull market. It was easy to make money during that time because almost everything went up.

But since 2000, we've been in a range-bound market with bull and bear segments and lots of volatility. The result after 9 years is the market is lower, and most investors have zero gains or even losses.
 

You can see this plainly in this DJIA chart...

Note that in April of 2000 the DOW was over 11,500. But by March of 2003 it was down to 7,500. Then it climbed to 14,000 by November of 2007. Only to plunge to 6500 by March of 2009. And then rally back to 9,300 by mid-August.

The DOW was all over the place, but after 9 years through August 15th, the end result was a -20% loss. That's a range-bound market.

How much longer will this volatile sideways market last? We can get a good idea from the current economic picture...

Home values are still down. Banks are not lending like they used to. Companies are still shedding jobs. And consumer confidence is fragile...

The fact is 70% of our economy is consumer spending but consumers aren't spending as much these days. Instead, they're paying down debt, saving more, and trying to rebuild what they've lost.

The problem is without robust consumer spending, there's no way to get a strong economic recovery. And that means this volatile range-bound market is likely to persist for at least a few more years.

The worst things you can do in a range-bound market are...

	Buy the market
	Be a buy-and-hold investor
	Own average stocks, ETFs, or mutual funds.

Fortunately, there's a way to profit in a range-bound market. In fact, there's five. I'll show you how.

-- Nathan Slaughter
Editor
StreetAuthority's Half-Priced Stocks