Sheraz Mian

We are just days away from closing the books on a very good year for the stock market. While the broad consensus is for the trend to continue in 2014, realities make it seem like next year will actually be tougher.

Rumors of the demise of buy-and-hold investing are greatly exaggerated, to say the least. But to adequately benefit from this tested and proven strategy, investors need to guard against three major pitfalls.

The current air of uncertainty and tentativeness will lift only after the current impasse comes to an end. But what happens to the market afterwards - once sanity returns to Washington?

Overall, stocks have moved sideways lately, and, naturally, bulls and bears have very different opinions on what that means. Consider the best arguments from both sides and decide for yourself.

With respect to the ongoing third-quarter earnings season, the overall picture emerging is less than inspiring. Here's a real-time scorecard so far for this earnings season.

The downgrade of global economic growth by the International Monetary Fund provides a fitting backdrop for the start of third quarter earnings season. This raises the prospect that most companies will cite the weak economic environment to provide a subdued outlook for the fourth quarter and beyond.

With a number of market-moving developments on deck for the rest of the week, the stock market should be relatively calm. But which will make a bigger impact, news out of the Fed or Apple's expected launch of awaited the iPhone 5?

A lot is riding on next week's data, particularly Friday's August jobs report, which will likely keep stocks in tentative mood. August's jobs report could determine whether or not the Fed decides on another round of quantitative easing.

Hardly anyone expects stocks to sustain the impressive momentum from the first quarter as a new quarter gets under way today.

In addition to a number of economic reports coming out this week, the Group of 20 countries are still hammering out details on the IMF's financial contribution to the European rescue effort.

The markets have been very volatile, but there's some good news on the jobless claims front.

This week's busy economic calendar should help answer some questions about U.S. growth, following a spate of recent soft readings. Until then, stocks remain under pressure as negative ratings agency actions remind investors of Europe's debt woes.

Concerns about the health of the economy prompted exits from the more economically sensitive corners of the stock market last week. Benefiting from this flight from risk were the more defensive stocks, such as healthcare, staples and utilities.

With nothing major on the economic calendar and the earnings season winding down, stocks will likely lack a clear direction. But lingering positivity from Friday's strong jobs report may keep overall investor sentiment favorable.

The elimination of Osama bin Laden deals a major psychological blow to al Qaeda and removes a major global terrorism threat, which experts believe will be a net positive for the U.S. financial markets.