Been scrolling through some market data lately and honestly, there's a lot of mixed signals right now. A recent survey showed about a third of individual investors are optimistic, another third pessimistic, and the rest just shrugging. Can't blame them -- figuring out when will stock market crash is basically everyone's burning question these days.

Let me break down what the numbers are actually telling us. The Shiller CAPE ratio for the S&P 500 is sitting near record highs right now, hovering around 40. For context, the long-term average is around 17, and it hit 44 back in 1999 right before everything imploded. So yeah, that's concerning. Then there's the Buffett indicator -- the total value of U.S. stocks divided by GDP -- and it's currently at around 219%. Buffett himself said when this ratio hits 200%, you're basically playing with fire. He called the dot-com crash using this exact metric, so it's not like this indicator has a bad track record.

Obviously the question everyone's asking is when will stock market crash happen. Thing is, no metric is perfect. Even if a pullback is coming, nobody knows the exact timing. The market could keep climbing for months before anything happens. And here's where it gets interesting -- if you bail out now trying to time the bottom, you'll probably just end up missing the gains.

Historically, this is actually where the good news kicks in. Average bear markets since 1929 have only lasted about 286 days, roughly nine months. Bull markets though? They stick around for nearly three years on average. The S&P 500 has weathered some brutal downturns and always bounced back stronger. The market's long-term trajectory just crushes short-term noise.

So even if a stock market crash is coming, the real wealth-building happens when you're holding quality stocks through the volatility. Short-term swings suck, but if your portfolio is solid, that's when you actually build serious returns over time. The investors who panic-sold during crashes are the ones who regret it later.