You've got to know the companies you own. You've got to be very picky.

I hope I'm wrong. But for the prediction to be wrong, stocks have to go up 18.5 percent in 2002.

Our survey results are a wake-up call to people in their twenties and thirties: Get going.

The Merrill Lynch name has...inhibited broader acceptance of our retail products. This new brand is the linchpin of our effort to make our industry-leading products and services available to an even broader range of advisers and investors.

As long as the economy stays healthy, financials will resume their underperformance.

Companies with pricing power will likely perform well and capital-related companies will likely outperform consumer-related companies.

Corporate earnings have had an incredible run over the past several years, and unfortunately, we believe we are past the peak of growth in profits and that corporate earnings will not meet their lofty expectations.

Earnings are not bad, but they're just not as good as they have been. We've gotten so used to them being better than expected, and now that they've returned to normal, the market is struggling with that.

Depending on the degree to which earnings slow, the dollar declines, corporations and individuals put cash to work and a variety of other factors, we can envision a scenario where the markets decline and then rebound to finish the year in the black.