Stocks have been swimming in red ink this week, so it's only natural that traders are beginning to wonder whether the bull market has run out of steam. Well, take heart in this contrarian indicator: James K. Glassman, who predicted in 1999 that the Dow would rise to 36,000, is out with a new book titled Safety Net: The Strategy for De-Risking Your Investments in a Time of Turbulence.

Schaeffer's Senior Technical Strategist Ryan Detrick, who first brought this news to my attention, points out the odd timing of Glassman's new tome. In 1999, the author was wildly bullish on the cusp of a painful market plunge; now, he's advocating distinctly more conservative strategies "in the midst of three straight years of equity mutual fund outflows and a negative market the past decade," says Detrick. "Quite the change from 12 years ago."

According to Safety Net's landing page at Amazon.com, Glassman's hot investing tips now include "Reduce stock ownership" and "Make a substantial investment in bonds." Quite the change, indeed…