It never ceases to amaze just how much time, effort and anxiety investors devote to the futile effort of trying to predict the future. Predicting the future is not possible, and therefore, it is irrational to try. It doesn't matter if we're talking about the future of stock prices or anything else. If it hasn't happened yet, you cannot know how it will happen.
Moreover, if you are an investor, it doesn't matter if the stock market goes up or down. Suppose you own ten shares of General Electric (GE). If the stock price doubles or falls by 50%, you haven't made or lost money. You still own the same ten shares of GE, and still own the same percentage of GE's profits as you did before. If GE's profits go up or down, THAT is when you can say that you've made money (you can only lose money if GE posts losses instead of profits).
The numbers you see in your brokerage statement each month tell you absolutely nothing about how much money you have - the reason why is that stocks are not money, and the price of stocks tells you little to nothing (in the short term) about the profits that your companies are earning for you.
As it happens, I own shares of GE. I like to imagine that GE is a private company. It's earning profits, keeping some to reinvest in the business, paying some to me, and I can say without a doubt that GE is making me money. If the village idiot comes up to me and says "I will buy your shares in GE for half what you paid", does that mean I have suddenly lost half my investment? Of course not! I tell the village idiot to go stuff it, and keep on happily collecting my dividend checks. I don't care if it is one village idiot or an entire chorus of village idiots. I don't care if it's a chorus of village geniuses offering to buy my shares in GE at half off. GE is earning money for me, and I am not selling. In fact, the only time I even care what the chorus of village idiots or geniuses is offering me is when they offer me a price for GE shares that is unreasonably high, something far far far above the value of profits GE is earning for me or is ever likely to earn for me in the next twenty years. Until that day comes, there is nothing that the chorus of village idiots can tell me that I care to hear.
Another word for "chorus of idiots" is "the stock market." If you own stock, you are a business owner, and the money your business earns for you is the only thing that determines whether you are making or losing money on your investment. You won't find that information looking at the bottom of a brokerage statement, and since you won't, there is no reason to even look at the bottom of your brokerage statement. And it is simply irrational to try and guess what that number will be in the future.
Disclosure: The author is long GE.