The most fundamental tenet of investing is that risk and reward go hand in hand. The greater the potential reward, the greater the risk. The lower the risk, the lower the reward you can expect.

If you just look at the daily closes on the indexes, one would conclude that the market is relatively healthy and is still providing opportunities to buy. But when you look at it from other perspectives, you could draw a conclusion that is much different.

The big New York newspaper is at it again. Instead of the usual full frontal praise, Mark Hulbert gave yet another subtle pat on the back to index funds this month.

Right now, we have a rare opportunity. We can get paid a monthly double-digit dividend… We can buy in for only 85 cents on the dollar… And we can have the skills of a legendary investment manager behind us.

Just how deep and how long will America’s recession be? This is the question raised in today’s Financial Times.

Will it be a V-shaped recession – short, shallow and followed by a rapid return to normal rates of growth? Will it be U-shaped, in which the initial downturn is followed by a protracted period of weak growth and a slow return to the trend rate? Or could it even be an L-shaped recession – with economic weakness lasting for many years, as in the US during the Great Depression or Japan in the 1990s?

Mr Market kicked off the second quarter with a rally, extending gains into a second day. The upswing comes after heavy writedowns by Swiss bank UBS and data showing confidence among manufacturers at a four-year low.

Read on at Dow Jones MarketWatch.

“No matter what you think, now is the time to buy,” says value investor Chris Mayer.