All the civic chaos and social brinksmanship notwithstanding U.S. equities have brazenly continued to march higher and higher since the activation of the riot brigade. Much to the chagrin of a legion of political arsonists who would love nothing more than to see our entire nation go up in flames.

In part 2 of this series I am going to dumb down a key aspect of bear markets that has largely remained unknown to the vast majority of retail traders. It is important to embrace the fact that while the gray unwashed masses focus solely on the daily gyrations of the VIX professional traders instead religiously follow an exotic construct called the Implied Volatility Term Structure (IVTS).

When it comes to financial news in particular, can you remember reading a single bullish headline over the past week? Or perhaps over the past month? The past year? Past decade? Me neither. Instead it’s been doom & gloom every step on the way up from SPX 667 back in 2008 to now over 3300 eleven and some years later. If nothing else the political culture war triggered by the election of Donald J. Trump has only served to exacerbate a mainstream media landscape addicted to that next juicy bit of angst inciting clickbait.

The teens are over and done with and we’re now heading straight into the roaring twenties. I know it’s supposed to be hip to be all cynical and black pilled these days; but let me be among the first to buck this nauseating trend and predict that it’s going to be an awesome decade for anyone serious about being successful – and most importantly the very few willing to put in the work.