Ha! Maybe I am not a very advanced investor.  Maybe I should choose my words more carefully,  Maybe I should say there is no such thing as "forward market timing".   

XYIN, I am not disbuting the fact that the timing of investment entry and exist can make a significant impact on asset return.  By the way, I did look all the time frame you have suggested, and I found that all those time frame have one thing in-commone (very important); backward looking.  All those time are in the past!! (Therefore my apoloige that my should choose my words more carefully, "There is not such thing as forward market timing".  Anybody can look at a stock/index chart and tell you "If I buy xyz in 01/01/1998 and sell it on 01/01/2000, I will make $$$".  I will call you GOD if you can tell me if I buy/short XYZ on 01/10/2007 and close my position on 01/10/2008, I will make/lose +/- X%.  Making forward forcast is the trick.  Not backward looking.  Remember, I agree with you that timing of investment entry/exit has a sigifcant impact on investment.  However, the determination of entry/exit is not based on market timing, it is based on asset valuation.  Also, what bear market are you talking about?  Equity? Fix-income? Commodity? Real-Estate?  Hedge-Fund?  or other asset class?  As far as my experience goes, I have not see a perfect storm in US market; meaning that every single asset class went down.  If an investor experience had a major loss in a "bear" market, he/she must had a concentration position in that particular market.   Once again, prove that diversification is important.  Typical bear maket in equity mean bull market in other market(bond, commodity, real-estate) becuase the money has to flow somewhere.  As an intelligent investor like yourself, you won't care about that portifilo manager has to say since you have the ability to analyze all information(Rational Investor Theory).  A portiflio that is 100% invested at all time across asset class has a 70% better chance earn a market history return than a portiflio that is moving money from on asset to another.  Let me be careful agine.  A 100% invested portfilio means money is invested in its diversified asset at all time and rebalanced quarterly according to investor's investment return objective and investment constraints.  Enough for now!