The concentrated effort to create the new bull will require retail investor participation (and resulting benefit) at some point. The question is how long of an "artificial" brigde can be sustained? I think it will take some time. The average consumer has a pretty big fixed longer term debt load partially financed with funds previously devoted to the stock market (401k's etc.). I.e. a lot of people have reduced their contributions and rather pay a larger mortgage. Incomes, specifically take home pay, is not really rising...