Actors often say their performance goes off the boil when they start worrying how well they are doing on stage. Even thinking about how they are going to deliver their next line can spell disaster.

The market has reached an equally dangerous period of introspection, as investors are beginning to fret that economic recovery will fail, thus undermining their astonishing performance in the second and third quarters. The days of making easy money from the great rally of 2009 could be over.