Well, maybe now the hype will subside. Having taken 76 years to move from 100 to 1,000 in 1972, the Dow Jones index of 30 blue-chip US companies has sprinted through the 10,000 barrier in just 27 years. As recently as the start of the current decade, the index had yet to break through the 3,000 ceiling.

It appears the only thing bearish analysts have managed to talk down in recent years is their own reputations, as even US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan's bid to talk down the markets by referring to "irrational exuberance" served only to create a blip on the seemingly endless upward curve on the index's performance.

Market-watchers have all but given up trying to explain the ongoing progress of equities, although many will cite economic growth, low interest rates and short memories of the bad times as all playing a part.

Most now settle for warning that the "momentum party" of the 1990s cannot go on forever. They may be right but, unfortunately, the only certainty is that investors will only learn that lesson with hindsight . . . and expensively.