Now, were there anything necessary to increase confidence following last year’s throttling, it seems time without incident would be among the top requirements. And this in fact we have seen! Yet why is institutional confidence fading despite continued buoyancy of risk assets?

You say, “the recent tapering off of confidence explains much of the sideways movement in equity markets over the last few months.” Yet during the opening two months of 2009 institutional confidence held its ground and, indeed, appears to have risen ever so slightly. So, then, given this what explains the market’s thrashing into early March?

I have a sneaking suspicion that, if you were to look at the history of bear markets, institutional investors are equally as prone to losing their shirts as are small investors.